Gay couples win equal pension rights

SAME-SEX partners were last night handed the same legal rights as married couples over company pensions.

For the first time, homosexuals will be able to pass the right to continue receiving the payments to their survivor.

The change was announced in the Commons by Trade Minister Jacqui Smith in the latest Government move to give gays full legal rights.

Under the change, a member of a gay couple who pays into an occupational pension scheme will be able to insist that on their death the cash should go to their 'spouse'.

Three out of four pension schemes already offer homosexual partners the same benefits enjoyed by husbands and wives. But the new law will pile an extra burden on the remaining 25% of employers who operate such pension schemes.

These firms will be obliged to pay more of their profits into occupational schemes to ensure that there is enough cash to cover the commitment, or alternatively cut back on offering a pension at all.

Ministers are unsure how many extra gays will now be able to claim pension money.

In the spring, the Government suggested there would be up to 425,600 civil partnerships by 2050, but more recently it has slashed the number to 42,550.

That compares with 260,000 heterosexual marriages a year, even at the current historically low levels.

The latest move follows intensive lobbying by trade unions, civil rights organisations and homosexual pressure groups.

It is part of the Civil Partnerships Bill, which also gives homosexual partners the other legal and tax privileges that are currently enjoyed by married couples. They will be entitled to mutual tenancy rights, equal legal status - including the right to be recognised as next of kin - and exemption from the increasingly heavy burden of inheritance tax.

They will win the right to compensation if their partner is in an accident or suffers a criminal injury.

And there will be a 'divorce' system for homosexuals who decide to split up. Although Ministers insist it does not amount to gay unfair to unmarried heterosexual couples who do not have the right to pass on occupational pensions.

Ministers, however, say there is no need to help heterosexual couples who co-habit as they can easily obtain the same right - by getting married.

Yesterday's move will be implemented through an amendment to the Civil Partnerships Bill tabled in the Commons yesterday.

The change applies to gay people who have decided not to join the Government-run supplementary pension schemes, Serps, or the so- called Second State Pension, and opted instead to join the occupational scheme run by their employer.

Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions said yesterday: 'The Civil Partnership Bill is all about equality so I am delighted that with these changes civil partners will be able to pass on survivor pensions as married people do.

'This has important practical applications: often a pension will be the most valuable asset an individual has, so their ability to pass it on is crucial.'

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