What rules about sex discrimination apply to occupational pension schemes?

There are a few areas of pensions where it is currently still legal to treat men and women differently, (mainly related to the fact that women tend to live longer).

It is illegal to discriminate when:

• deciding who can join a scheme
• paying benefits in a salary related scheme (except those built up before 1990 when European law stopped discrimination)
• paying lump sum death benefit
• setting retirement dates

It is legal to discriminate between men and women:

• when deciding how much to reduce a pension because of early retirement
• in pensions from money purchase schemes because it is legal to have different annuity rates for men and women. It is likely that this will become illegal sometime in 2012.

Sex discrimination has been made more difficult in recent years, largely thanks to European law and union action. But pensions built up before 1990 may still be treated differently. This is a complicated legal area, and you would need to take detailed advice.