DPO declines to follow Court on meaning of “earner”

In a determination issued last week (Mrs T, CAS-78486-R9D8), the Deputy Pensions Ombudsman declined to follow the High Court’s decision in Hughes v Royal London [2016] EWHC 319 (Ch) that the reference to “earner” in the definition of “transfer credits” in s.181 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 meant that it was a requirement for a transferring member to be earning income at the time of the transfer. The DPO held that that decision was not binding on her, and that a member has a right to transfer credits irrespective of whether they were an earner at the time of the transfer.

A full note of this determination will be published on Pensions Barrister in due course. In the meantime, the determination can be found here.