"A great cheer" should be heard across the pensions industry today, after a Supreme Court ruling that same-sex married couples can receive the same pension rights as opposite sex married couples.

Retired businessman John Walker won equal pension benefits for his husband in a ruling by the UK's highest court.

He challenged an exemption in the Equality Act that allows employers to exclude same sex civil partners and spouses from benefits paid into a pension fund from before the Civil Partnership Act came into force in 2005.

The exemption will no longer apply and any companies taking advantage of it will be breaking the law.

David Brooks, Technical Director at Broadstone, said: "A great cheer should go up in the world on pensions today – the long-awaited ruling means that any schemes paying statutory minimum will now have to pay out the same benefits for all spouses and we no longer have to differentiate between the sexuality of beneficiaries."

The ruling may have implications across the sector, possibly seeing an increase in funding levels of both private and public sector schemes.

"The Government discussed this several times and it will be interesting to see if its reaction results in the predicted domino effect onto other pension inequalities, for instance around survivor benefits where GMP is involved," added Brooks.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) opposed the case, alongside Walker's employer, chemicals company Innospec.

DWP argued that the cost implications for requiring all pension schemes to equalise entitlements retrospectively, could be £100million for private sector schemes and a further £20million for public sector schemes.

Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said the costs could indeed escalate: "Pension schemes will have to respond to this judgment, but new groups will come forward and say: 'I'm being treated unfairly... we want the same rights as well' - the difference between widows and widowers - for example."

The Supreme Court ruling was unanimous.

First published 13.07.2017

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com