On the go: The Pension Protection Fund hopes to use Department for Work and Pensions data to help it implement tricky increases required by the landmark Bauer judgment, according to Sara Protheroe, chief customer officer at the PPF.
Last December, the European Court of Justice ruled that the pensions lifeboat will have to top up member benefits if the individual is living below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold determined by Eurostat.
Ms Protheroe explained that since then, the PPF has been working with the DWP on a potential solution. She said: “They have much greater information about peoples’ incomes, in order to implement the benefit regime that they’re responsible for, in particular in relation to pension credit for those pensioners on lower incomes.
“We see the DWP as being the key to the implementation of the Bauer judgment and we continue to work with them closely on how they can support us.”
However, Ms Protheroe said the PPF does not expect that there will be many people that will need a top-up.
This is an opinion shared by industry experts, who have argued that there is a very low chance of this judgment impacting the PPF, since the lifeboat pays out benefits in full to pensioners and the Eurostat threshold for poverty in the UK is set at around €12,500 (£10,500) per year – only slightly above the current full state pension.
Nevertheless, Ms Protheroe does not have a timeline for a solution to be found for implementation of any top-ups, as the PPF is “heavily dependent on the DWP”, and the Covid-19 crisis “will inevitably introduce a delay”, she added.
