The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has confirmed that it will not put a time limit on payments for the Hampshire uplift or uncapping arrears, with arrears to be paid from the time at which the affected members started to receive compensation.

The compensation cap was ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal in 2021, although there had been uncertainty as to whether a six-year time limit would apply to arrears payments.

However, in an update on its work to implement the Hampshire and Hughes court rulings, the PPF confirmed that it would not put a time limit on payments of Hampshire or uncapping arrears, stating that it will "pay arrears from the time that affected members started to receive compensation".

The PPF also noted that whilst the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) cap was not affected by the court of appeal ruling, some members are entitled to Hampshire arrears.

In light of this, the lifeboat, which is the scheme manager for the FAS on behalf of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), confirmed that it will not put a time limit on the payment of Hampshire arrears to FAS members.

The DWP also recently stated that it would not pay interest on FAS arrears as there is "no legal basis to do so", although the Work and Pensions Committee has since written to DWP to further query these differing approaches.

The PPF is still undertaking work to complete the payments, describing this as a “long and complicated piece of work” that is expected to take until the end of 2022 to complete.

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