Pensions

Pensions

This Overview outlines the Practice Note material available in our Pensions subtopic.

Pensions—general considerations for employment lawyers

Payment into pension schemes that are registered with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has significant tax advantages for both employers and employees (see: ‘The pensions tax regime’ below). Pension schemes are also a way of attracting and retaining employees.

Under European law pension benefits are considered to be deferred pay, so they are subject to the principle of 'equal pay for equal work'. A significant amount of indirect discrimination litigation has occurred in the past few years; the majority of which had been brought by part-time workers, the majority of whom are women.

Employers may run occupational pension schemes for the benefit of their employees. Occupational pension schemes tend to be either 'final salary' (also known as 'defined benefit') schemes or 'money purchase' (also known as 'defined contribution') schemes:

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final salary schemes commit the scheme, under the deed and rules, to paying members a set annuity on retirement
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money purchase schemes require employees and employers to pay a set amount each year into the scheme, usually expressed as a percentage of

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Latest Employment News

Employment weekly highlights—5 June 2025

This edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) an analysis of the recent immigration White Paper by Ben Maitland of Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law, (2) an analysis of reforms to reduce discrimination in the Local Government Pension Scheme by David Gallagher and Daniel Fowler at Fieldfisher, (3) an EAT decision that a claimant’s aversion to wearing a mask lacked the necessary cogency, seriousness, and cohesion to qualify as a protected philosophical belief, (4) an ET decision that a teacher’s dismissal was not the result of her whistleblowing over the school’s policy on trans children, (5) an analysis of a Court of Appeal decision that UK gender recognition certificates do not allow gender to be recorded as non-binary by Harini Iyengar at 11KBW, (6) a report from the Institute for Public Policy Research on the challenges surrounding surveillance in the workplace, (7) the publication of the latest UK Stewardship Code by the Financial Reporting Council, (8) new guidance and legislation on amendments to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) under the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, (9) a successful appeal to the EAT against a ‘gisting order’ in an unfair dismissal claim amid national security concerns, (10) two new Practice Notes on providing toilet, washing and changing facilities in the workplace following the Supreme Court decision in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers, and on the right to disconnect produced in partnership with Rosie Moore and Simon Swaine of Lewis Silkin, (11) dates for your diary, and (12) other news items of interest to employment practitioners.

Teacher fails to prove trans whistleblowing led to dismissal

Law360: An employment tribunal (ET) has dismissed a teacher's claim that she lost her job after blowing the whistle during a feud over the handling of a child who wished to change gender.

WEC publishes follow-up report on music industry misogyny

The Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has published a follow-up report examining progress on recommendations from its January 2024 inquiry into misogyny in the music industry. The original inquiry found endemic discrimination and harassment of women in the sector. The committee heard evidence that 32% of women musicians experienced sexual harassment, with higher rates among disabled and LGBT+ performers. The latest report has found minimal industry changes and highlights the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as a major concern. The report also expresses support for the creation of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA), and urges the government invest in CIISA financially and ideologically.

PLSA updates 2025 retirement living standards with revised costs and terminology

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has released its 2024–25 retirement living standards, illustrating decreased minimum retirement costs at £21,600 for two-person households and £13,400 for one-person households, primarily due to reduced energy prices. In contrast, the moderate and comfortable standards depict modest increases in line with inflation. The update further modernises the language by replacing ‘single’ and ‘couple’ with ‘one-person’ and ‘two-person’ households, thereby recognising diverse living arrangements in retirement. Detailed estimates on the annuity fund sizes required to achieve these standards are also provided, underscoring the advantages of shared living costs and offering a practical guide for personalised retirement planning.