Discrimination Issues – How Far Back Should You Go?

EU law has for some time prohibited discrimination against scheme members on certain grounds like race and sex. Recently this has been extended to cover age and sexual orientation. The UK met the EU's timeframe: the provisions on sexual orientation discrimination came into force on 1 December 2003, and those on age discrimination from 1 December 2006 (for pension schemes).

In both cases, the UK's implementing regulations state that discrimination on the relevant ground is unlawful except in relation to benefits payable in respect of periods of pensionable service prior to the coming into force of the relevant regulations. Is this limit fair? A pension coming into payment after the cut off date may be calculated, at least in part, by reference to service before the cut off date. However, the discriminatory act of putting the pension into payment occurs entirely after the legislation came into effect and it would be possible to eliminate the discrimination for all