Pension Compensation Fund Age Discrimination

The High Court has ruled that compensation caps applied by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) to be age discriminating.

A review of the policy saw that applying a compensation cap for those under normal pension age deemed to be age discriminating after claims by 25 people from 4 pensions schemes Monarch, Heath Lambert Group, BMI and Turner & Newall.  In view of the ruling, benefits may now be increasing.

One of the claimants Mr Hughes saw his pension reduce by 75% after the compensation cap applied, removal of pre-1997 indexation protection and downgrading of post-1997 inflation to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

Since the ruling in 2018 in a European Court of Justice (ECJ) this is the 3^rd instance where PPF protection has been questioned.  Compensation must amount to at least 50% of members benefits and ensure members remain above the poverty threshold.

The latest High Court judgment has not decided whether the application of a 90% rule to non-pensioner members benefits compared to the 100% received by pensioner members was age discrimination.

Comment

There is age discrimination in many areas of finance