Anne Dumbreck Robins v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Under the Pension Schemes Act 1993, s 46(1), a guaranteed minimum pension is deducted from a Category A or Category B retirement pension by the lesser of the relevant pre-1997 additional pension and the aggregate GMPs.

The deduction applies even where a widow’s Category A pension was earned entirely from her own full contributions and was not topped up by reference to her husband. Purpose clauses and headings may inform construction, but general wording cannot ordinarily cut down clear operative language where the result is coherent and consistent with the legislative scheme.

Mrs Robins was receiving an old-style Category A state pension based on her own contributions. After her husband’s death, she also became entitled to a widow’s guaranteed minimum pension from his contracted-out occupational scheme.

The Secretary of State deducted the widow’s GMP of £53.21 from her pre-1997 additional pension under the Pension Schemes Act 1993, s 46(1). The First-tier Tribunal dismissed her appeal on 19 February 2020. The Upper Tribunal allowed it on 5 August 2022, holding that s 46 did not apply because Mrs Robins had never belonged to a contracted-out scheme. The central issue was whether s 46 authorised the deduction from her untopped-up Category A pension.

1. Disposition. The Secretary of State’s appeal was allowed. The Court restored the First-tier Tribunal’s decision upholding the deduction of the widow’s GMP from Mrs Robins’s Category A pension.
2. Construction of s 46(1). The provision is clear. It operates where a person is entitled to a Category A or Category B retirement pension and to one or more GMPs. It does not require the pension to be derived from reduced contributions or to be payable in respect of the member whose contracted-out employment generated the GMP.
3. Operation of the scheme. A GMP is not a straightforward replacement for SERPS attributable only to contracted-out years. The statutory scheme treats the GMP and state pension together as alternative ways of delivering the pension that would have been payable had employment remained contracted in. Accordingly, the deduction may reduce additional pension earned during contracted-in employment, subject to the statutory cap which protects the basic pension and later additional pension. This approach was consistent with CP 1318 2001, Pearce [2005] EWCA Civ 453 and Wilkinson [2009] EWCA Civ 1111.
4. Widows. The same reasoning applies where a widow receives an untopped-up Category A pension and a widow’s GMP. The meaningful comparison is between the state pension plus GMP and the pension payable if the relevant employment had not been contracted out. Non-GMP occupational benefits are speculative and irrelevant to that comparison. The calculation confirmed in CP 5377 2006 illustrated the same principle.
5. Purpose and context. The headings and s 40 purpose clause of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 could assist interpretation but could not cut down the clear words of s 46(1). Context and statutory purpose may affect apparently plain wording in an appropriate case, but here the natural construction was coherent, rational and consistent with the legislative scheme. The arguments concerning s 47 therefore required no determination.

1. Court of Appeal (Civil Division) allowed the Secretary of State’s second appeal and restored the First-tier Tribunal’s decision under [2023] EWCA Civ 890.
2. Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) allowed Mrs Robins’s appeal on 5 August 2022 and removed the £53.21 contracting-out deduction.
3. First-tier Tribunal dismissed Mrs Robins’s appeal on 19 February 2020.