THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES TO OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES

This Practice Note explores the pension rights of opposite-sex and same-sex spouses and civil partners (including the impact of the cases Walker v Innospec and Goodwin v Secretary of State for Education) on a member’s death and the extension of Civil partnership legislation to opposite-sex couples.

For a discussion of the pension rights of partners who are neither married nor in a civil relationship (ie Cohabitants), see Practice Note: Pension rights of unmarried cohabitants on members’ death.

This Practice Note contains references to case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). For guidance on whether EU judgments are binding on UK courts, see Practice Note: Assimilated law — Assimilated case law.

In October 2020, the Pensions Minister expressly confirmed that the Supreme Court case Walker v Innospec, whose ruling relied on the supremacy of Archived Directive 2000/78/EC (Archived Equal Treatment Framework Directive), would continue to apply post-IP completion day. Furthermore, to remedy the impact of the Retained