GMP equalisation
Pensions - UK - contracting out - gender equality.
GMP is an abbreviation for Guaranteed Minimum Pension.
Historically, UK contracted-out pension schemes were required to provide a GMP.
Since 1997, a different test has applied, but schemes still have to provide a GMP for pension rights accrued before 1997.
In the past, retirement ages for women and men in the UK were different.
This resulted in unequal treatment of men and women in respect of their GMP entitlements.
GMP equalisation is the process of ensuring equality between women and men for these entitlements.
Legal requirement to equalise GMPs
The legal requirement to equalise GMPs was uncertain until the judgment of the High Court in 2018 in the case of Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Ltd v Lloyds Bank PLC and others.
The court held that the pension trustee was “under a duty to amend the Schemes in order to equalise benefits for men and women so as to alter the result which is at present produced in relation to GMPs.”
