Supreme Court issued a unanimous judgment in a case concerning a claim by the unmarried cohabiting partner of a member of a public service pension scheme that she should be entitled to receive a survivor’s pension. In this Pensions Alert we provide an overview of the judgment and consider the possible implications for private sector occupational pension schemes.

Facts of the case

The scheme in this case was the Local Government Pension Scheme in Northern Ireland (Scheme). The regulations governing the Scheme provided for a pension to be payable to a “nominated cohabiting partner” on the death of a member. A member could nominate their partner by submitting a declaration, signed by them both, that certain conditions including cohabitation and financial dependency or interdependency had been met for at least two years. The nomination form alone would not entitle the partner to a pension. The partner would have to show that they had in fact been a cohabitant for two years before the date of the declaration, and that they had been in that position for two years before the date of death.

The applicant in this case had cohabited with her partner for ten years before his death in December 2009. However, the Scheme had not received a nomination form and therefore refused to pay her a survivor’s pension. The applicant challenged that decision by way of judicial review on the basis that the requirement for a nomination form constitutes unlawful discrimination contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because a nomination is not required in the case of marriage or civil partnership.

Read More: HERE