Trustees’ policy of refusing transfers in due to sex equality concerns 1

Reference: L00130

The complainant wanted the scheme trustees to accept a transfer in from a personal pension scheme to which he had previously transferred benefits from an occupational pension scheme which included pre and post Barber service. The trustees refused to accept the transfer in on the basis that the scheme would then (pursuant to the ECJ ruling in Coloroll) acquire an obligation to equalise any unequalised service represented by the transfer payment.

The complainant argued that the trustees had a blanket policy of not accepting transfers in and had not properly considered his case.

The Ombudsman held that trustees could "legitimately adopt a policy/some guidelines, so long as each case is considered individually on its merits and the guidelines are reviewed from time to time. While applying a policy too rigidly and determining that a discretion should be exercised in a particular way for future cases without regard to the circumstances prevailing at the time might amount to fettering of the discretion, in my view, the evidence does not suggest that this is a criticism which can fairly be laid at the feet of the Trustees." The Ombudsman was also positive about the fact that the policy was aimed at the protection of members as a whole.

Comment
It is not clear what considering each case "individually" requires in practice – it may be that it means no more than the trustees stopping to think about the case (otherwise it is difficult to see what would be gained from having a policy).