Many pension schemes are still “knowingly paying members the wrong benefits” seven years after a landmark court ruling required guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) equalisation, EY-Parthenon pensions partner, Russell Laver, has warned.

Speaking at the Association of Member Nominated Trustees (AMNT) Annual Conference, Laver stated that, despite the 2018 High Court ruling requiring schemes to equalise GMPs to correct historical gender inequalities, progress across the market has been slow.

“It’s been seven years since the court ruling found that schemes were paying members the wrong benefits and they needed to fix it,” he noted.

“Most of the schemes I speak to have still not really started that journey or gone through GMP equalisation. Schemes are knowingly paying members the wrong benefits.”

Laver described the lack of action as particularly troubling given the human impact, warning that “quite a few members who have been due to get top-ups have passed away, and that family will never receive that money”.

“I expect to see more pressure on trustees to push for GMP equalisation,” he added, noting that in some cases “it’s not uncommon to see figures in excess of £10,000 not being given to members”.

He acknowledged, however, that equalisation remains a highly complex and resource-intensive process, requiring significant amounts of data and detailed actuarial calculations.

“These are incredibly complex projects which require oodles of data and calculations, which can take a lot of time,” he said.

With this in mind, Laver urged trustees to actively review the market for potential partners with the capacity and expertise to help complete the work, with many schemes and providers struggling to deliver GMP equalisation efficiently

Indeed, regulatory pressures have overtaken longevity and inflation as one of the most significant risks facing UK pension schemes, according to Aon’s Global Pension Risk Survey 2025, which found that “trustees increasingly recognised the importance of good data before they can complete projects such as GMP equalisation, dashboard-readiness or bulk annuity transactions.

To help on this front, last year, the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) developed a modeller to support pension schemes as they worked towards fully equalising benefits for their members.

The modeller seeks to assess the individual member impact of equalising GMPs and the associated costs of addressing the inequalities.

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