Partner Anna Rogers comments in Pensions Expert on the possible overturning of PPF’s Bauer ruling
A letter sent to various industry stakeholders was warned the UK Government is considering the removal of the effects of the Bauer ruling from UK law, which would impact the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), and introducing primary legislation in the near future.
Anna Rogers commented:
“It was never going to be easy for the Government to ensure that PPF protection complied with the Bauer ruling. It’s one thing to say the compensation has to be at least 50% of pension, as required by the Hampshire ruling, and quite another to keep the member above the poverty level. There is a Eurostat measure of the “at-risk-of-poverty” level but it’s not obvious how the UK would reproduce that. Only HMRC has information about combined income, and then only if the member is within the tax system. The onus for claiming top-up compensation from the PPF would have been on the individual. The Government could in theory comply by guaranteeing those in receipt of PPF compensation a minimum State income that takes them above some poverty threshold – hardly likely to happen.”
Read Anna’s comments in Pensions Expert.
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