EmploymentOccupational pension scheme - preservation of benefit - inapplicable where scheme unfundedRoyal Masonic Hospital and Another v The Pensions Ombudsman and Another: ChD (Rimer J): 20 December 2000The second defendant claimed to be entitled to deferred pension rights from the first appellant, her former employer, by virtue of c.1 of pt IV of the Pension Schemes Act 1993.

The Pension Ombudsman upheld her rights.

The first appellant and the receiver, the second appellant, appealed to the High Court on the ground that the relevant sections of the Pensions Schemes Act 1993 only applied to funded schemes, whereas the first appellant's pension scheme was unfunded.Brian Green QC and Thomas Seymour (instructed by Hammond Suddards Edge, Manchester) for the appellants.

Christopher Tidmarsh (instructed by John Yolland) for the first respondent.Held, allowing the appeal, that the first appellant's pension scheme was not a scheme under which either the first appellant or the employee members were required to make contributions; that pension payments were made out of the first appellant's general assets at the time when they fell due; that the scheme was not therefore a funded scheme, and since c.1 of pt IV of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 only applied to funded schemes the second respondent could not establish any deferred pension rights under it.