High Court declares LGPS rule on cohabitees unlawful

The High Court has declared unlawful the requirement for a nomination form before a cohabitee can receive a survivor pension under the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn said Walker J’s decision affected cohabitees whose partners died between 1 April 2008 and 1 April 2014.

The case was brought by its client Nicola Elmes against Essex County Council, but the firm said the declaration meant that cohabitees throughout England and Wales previously refused a survivor pension without a nomination form were now entitled to claim one.

It said that where a local authority refuses to agree to this - for example, saying a request had been made too late - that decision was likely to be challengeable.

The law firm said that large numbers of people were likely to benefit from the ruling given that the LGPS has more than 5.3m members and in 2014 there were nearly 3.0m opposite sex cohabiting couple families, and 84,000 same sex ones.