Hanson Industrial Pension Scheme (PO-4060)

Subject

Mr Hunt’s complaint is that his pension is lower than it should be because it was wrongly calculated using rules that post-date his employment. Mr Hunt says that since he left employment, the Trustee changed the way pensions were revalued in deferment. He was never informed of the change and he does not believe the Trustee had authority to make it. In his opinion there was a “detrimental modification”, under section 67 of the Pensions Act 1995.

Mr Hunt believes that his pension should be re-calculated in-line with a 1993 Pensions Handbook (the Handbook), which said that, whilst in deferment, his pension would receive increases of 5% per annum compound.

The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman’s determination and short reasons

The complaint should not be upheld against the Trustee because:

• Mr Hunt’s pension was properly calculated using the rules in force at the time he retired;
• There was no detrimental modification of the rules from the interim trust deed to the definitive trust deed – the interim trust deed did not say how revaluation was to be carried out.
• the Handbook did not say that deferred pensions would receive set increases of 5%, and would not, in any case, override the Scheme rules.