High Court approves BA deal with Airways Pension Scheme trustees
Justice Antony Zacaroli has approved the settlement deal between British Airways (BA) and the trustees of the Airways Pension Scheme (APS).
The High Court approval of the deal yesterday follows a court hearing earlier this month looking at the details of the deal, which plans to gradually return the indexation of pensions in payment to align with the Retail Prices Index (RPI) by 2021, with back payments made for the last six years. A further £250m contingency payment will also be unlocked for APS' sister scheme.
This ends the court battle over the trustees' decision to unilaterally award themselves sole power to award discretionary increases in 2011, and then the grant of a 0.2% discretionary increase to members in 2013.
The case had been set to head to the Supreme Court after the High Court and the Court of Appeal had returned judgments contradictory in favour of both BA and the APS trustees, albeit on different legal points.
In a statement, the APS trustees said they were pleased the out-of-court settlement had been agreed and the litigation that commenced in 2013 - and would have otherwise have been due to proceed to appeal at the Supreme Court - had now been brought to an end.
The trustees said they were now making arrangements for eligible pensioner members to receive a one-off lump sum of up to 4.6% and catch-up increase payments of up to 1.7% and 0.7% in the December 2019 pension payroll.
The statement said the trustees would provide full details of the payments and individual statements to all eligible members when payment is made in December - noting individual statements will show the new rate of pension from 8 April 2019 as well as the amount of any lump sum and arrears of pension due.
It said the trustees would also include a summary and FAQ document to assist members with any questions they might have about the discretionary increase payments.
See also:
BA awaits court blessing on settlement for six-year dispute
British Airways: How the discretionary increase case unfolded
More on Defined Benefit
DB transfer values jump to record high in July - XPS
Defined benefit (DB) transfer values continued to increase to yet another record high during July but the number of people opting to exit final salary schemes remains steady, according to XPS Transfer Watch.
What the new corporate insolvency law means for the pensions industry
Chris Edwards-Earl and Sue Moore explore how the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 will affect pension schemes.
Surplus success for tranche 13 schemes
Over a third of defined benefit (DB) schemes with valuations between September 2017 and September 2018 were in surplus, according to data from The Pensions Regulator (TPR).
Quilter doubles redress provision for British Steel pension transfers
Advice giant Quilter has set aside £24m to compensate British Steel workers advised to transfer out of their defined benefit (DB) pensions by Lighthouse, doubling its previous redress provisions.
DB funding - July 2020: PPF 7800 deficit grows another 14%
Every month, several firms issue trackers of the aggregate defined benefit (DB) scheme funding position. See here for the July 2020 estimates on the various measures…
