The Trustee wrote to some pensioner members in May 2023 with a proposal to address a historical inequality relating to some Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) benefits in the Plan. The Trustee has carried out this exercise in stages with this first stage of the exercise now being completed. Some members may receive further communications at different times over the next two years. 

This page, along with the ‘Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)’, provides further information about GMP, the outcome of the proposal, and includes details of the pension option that was made available to eligible members at the same time. 

Following the High Court case affecting members of salary related pension schemes, historical inequalities relating to some Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) benefits in the Plan were identified. 

As a result, we proposed a method for addressing that historical inequality that would give us the opportunity to simplify the benefits payable to members from the Plan in a way that is permitted by legislation – that is, by converting all GMPs in the Plan into a non-GMP form of pension. This is known as ‘GMP conversion’.  We can confirm that we have proceeded with this proposal.

GMP Conversion

We have carried out the calculations to address the historical GMP inequality in relation to past benefits (known as GMP equalisation). This affects some members of the Plan who built up pension between 17 May 1990 and 5 April 1997.

To comply with the High Court’s ruling for future pension payments, we decided to convert GMPs to a different form of pension (known as GMP conversion). This affected all members with a GMP in the Plan.

In all cases, at the time of GMP conversion the current amount and the expected value (also known as the actuarial value) of your pension over your lifetime has not been reduced as a result of GMP conversion.

Further information about this can be found in the article summarising the outcome of the GMP Consultation published in September 2023 and the GMP Question and Answers.

In addition, for a limited time, the Trustee gave eligible pensioners a choice, to exchange future potential increases to their pension for a one-off increase to their lifetime pension. This offer was taken up by a number of pensioner members.

The process for making the changes to pensions to reflect GMP equalisation and for those who requested the PIE offer has now been completed. 

The Trustee has carried out this exercise in stages with this first stage of the exercise now being completed. Some members may receive further communications at different times over the next two years. 

For those members written to in the first stage of the exercise, the deadline for receiving applications for this option was 15 December 2023 and as such, no further requests for PIE or any other changes can be considered.  All member choices regarding PIE have now been implemented along with changes in pensions to address the historical inequality relating to some Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) benefits in the Plan.