The Pensions Ombudsman’s McCloud factsheet

8 August 2022

The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has published a factsheet on McCloud. The factsheet sets out TPO’s views on what affected members and schemes can do now and TPO’s present approach to dealing with McCloud complaints.

TPO’s general starting position is that it would not investigate McCloud complaints. This is because it acknowledges that the Government is taking steps to address the discrimination with retrospective effect. TPO will, however, carefully look at the facts of each case before deciding whether to investigate.

GMP Equalisation Explained

3 March 2022

In 2018, a court ruled that pension schemes must ‘equalise’ the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) benefits for men and women. Currently, they are linked to the old state pension ages of 60 (for women) and 65 (for men).

GMPs are intended to be paid from the old state pension ages for men and women alike, (their ‘GMP age’), however they are not paid as well as a pension. This is because it is already included within the make-up of the pension. That said, the different starting ages for men and women can, in some instances, create inequality.