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3.5 Eligibility
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Each occupational scheme will have its own particular rules formulated
by the company, covering such aspects as who may join, when they
qualify, levels of benefit, retirement ages, personal contributions.
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Since April 1988 compulsory membership of occupational pension
schemes is not allowed. Employees may choose not to join, or may
leave an existing scheme (opt-out).
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It is not unusual to see a large occupational scheme with different
levels of pension benefit and different levels of related benefits
for different types of employee e.g. white collar, blue collar,
factory floor.
- Legislation exists, however, to ensure that such differentiation
does not become discrimination:-
- The Sex Discrimination Act 1986 effective from March 1987, prevents
an employer from imposing different compulsory retirement ages for
men and women. (permitted ages range are now 60 to 75 for men and
women, although particular occupations, such as various sporting
professions, have earlier normal retirement ages down to age 35).
- The Social Security Act 1989 (which implements the Third Directive
on Equal Treatment in occupational Pension Schemes) seeks to prevent
discrimination on the basis of sex, family or marital status. However,
under this legislation a scheme did not need to have the same pension
age for men and women so long as the State scheme continued to operate
different ages. This was subsequently altered as a result of the
Barber case.
- The Barber v GRE case in 1991 decided that it was in breach of
EC Law for a scheme to offer a woman an immediate pension on redundancy,
where a man of the same age would receive only a (less valuable)
deferred pension. This enforces the general principle of no discrimination
on grounds of sex, and was clarified in the Maastricht Agreement
in December 1991. The specific pension scheme ruling applied only
to benefit earned after 17th May 1990
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