Discrimination: Marital and Civil Partnership Status
- The Equality Act 2010 (the "Act") applies to both employers participating in occupational pension schemes and the trustees of such schemes.
- The Act also inserts an overriding non-discrimination rule into occupational pension schemes if they do not already contain such provision.
- Under the Act, persons (including trustees of pension schemes) are prevented from directly or indirectly discriminating or victimising someone because the individual is married or a civil partner. Harassment protection does not apply in relation to marital or civil partnership status.
- Same-sex partners have a right to any dependents’ pensions provided by pension schemes once they enter into a civil partnership or marry.
- There formerly was an exemption which allowed pension schemes to restrict this right to benefits that accrued from 5 December 2005 (i.e. when legislation permitting civil partnerships came into force). This "temporal exemption" was found to be incompatible with EU law in the case of Walker v Innospec and no longer applies.
- The exemption was the subject of a government review published in June 2014. The government is yet to make a final decision on any legislative changes to the exemption.
Current:
1
Current:
Login or subscribe (includes subscription information) to access the full content of this page.