SOLDIER WINS PENSION RIGHTS FOR HIS HUSBAND
A GAY former cavalry officer has won a legal battle to secure his husband the pension rights a wife would enjoy – with huge cost implications for pension funds.
John Walker was present to hear five justices at the Supreme Court in London unanimously allow his appeal against an earlier ruling against him.
Mr Walker, 66, suffered a defeat at the Court of Appeal in 2015, when judges rejected his claim because it applied to a period before gay civil partnerships were recognised by the law.
But yesterday justices ruled that Mr Walker’s husband, who is in his 50s, was entitled on his death to a spouse’s pension, provided they stay married.
Mr Walker said: “I am absolutely thrilled at today’s ruling which is a victory for basic fairness and decency.
“Finally this absurd injustice has been consigned to the history books – and my husband and I can now get on with enjoying the rest of our lives together.
“In the years since we started this challenge, how many people have spent their final days uncertain about whether their loved one would be looked after?
“How many people have been left unprovided for, having already suffered the loss of their partner?” Mr Walker retired from chemicals group Innospec in 2003 after being there for more than 20 years and making the same pension contributions as heterosexual colleagues.
He and his husband, former computer executive Ghani Jantan, have been together since 1993.
The couple entered into one of the first civil partnerships in 2006, then later married. The ruling could severely damage pension funds, according to a former pensions minister.
Sir Steve Webb, now director of policy at Royal London, said: “Pension schemes will have to respond to this judgment.”
He predicted other groups could claim on the same basis – “widows and widowers for example”.
Over time, with the potential for new cases, he said: “We could be talking a multibillion-pound bill.”
Mr Walker’s case related to an exemption in the Equality Act 2010 which allowed employers to exclude same-sex partners from spousal benefits paid into a pension fund before December 2005, when civil partnerships became legal.
But the Supreme Court justices ruled the exemption was “incompatible with EU law and must be disapplied”.
The decision means Mr Walker’s husband will be entitled to about £45,000 a year rather than £1,000.
At an earlier hearing, a QC for the Government said the cost of “requiring all pension schemes to equalise entitlements retrospectively” would be £100million for the private sector and £20million for public sector schemes.
The Government said it would review the implications of the judgment.