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Accrued rights meaning

What does Accrued rights mean?
Accrued rights are the pension benefits a member has already earned under an occupational pension scheme up to a specified date (for example, on leaving service, scheme closure or a proposed rule change). They arise from past service and contributions and are enforceable under the scheme rules. In defined benefit schemes, accrued rights are the pension built to date, typically subject to statutory revaluation and any guaranteed minimum pension. In defined contribution schemes, they are the value of the member’s pot (including employer and member contributions and investment returns) at that date. The term is descriptive rather than a single statutory definition. In the UK, the closest statutory concept is “subsisting rights”, which are protected against adverse modification on amendment (section 67, Pensions Act 1995, as amended), with parallel provisions in Northern Ireland. Preservation and revaluation requirements are set out in the Pensions Act 1993. In Ireland, preservation and revaluation are governed by the Pensions Act 1990; reductions of accrued benefits are possible in limited circumstances with regulatory approval (section 50). Accrued rights underpin advice on scheme amendments, closure to future accrual, transfers, divorce, funding, wind-up and employer debt, and determine minimum cash equivalents and member options.
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View the related Checklists about Accrued rights

CHECKLISTS
Defined benefit occupational pension transfers: statutory cash equivalents, 2021 transfer conditions, red/amber flag checks, process, timelines, calculations and trustee duties—practitioner checklist

Statutory right to cash equivalent Individuals in defined benefit workplace pension schemes have a legal entitlement to transfer the cash equivalent of their scheme benefits to certain other pension arrangements. From 30 November 2021, using this right requires meeting one of two conditions set out in the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Conditions for Transfers) Regulations 2021, SI 2021/1237, designed to protect members from fraudulent schemes. The stated cash equivalent is guaranteed for a three‑month period. This statutory entitlement takes precedence over any conflicting terms in the scheme’s trust deed and rules. The right applies where a member’s pensionable service has ended at least one year before normal pension age and the member has accrued rights under the scheme. Members who continue in service after pensionable service ends only acquire a...

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NEWS
UK tax weekly: Centrica Supreme Court, GEFI treaty relief, JTI unallowable purpose; VAT grouping; King’s Speech; HMRC updates—18 July 2024

In this issue: Budgets and Finance Bills Companies and corporation tax Brexit and tax Real estate tax Individuals and income tax Stamp and transfer taxes VAT Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Useful information Budgets and Finance Bills King’s Speech 2024 His Majesty the King outlined the government’s priorities, agenda and intended measures for the forthcoming parliamentary session during the State Opening of Parliament on 17 July 2024. Initial reactions from the Private Client community to the announcements have been collated. See: LNB News 17/07/2024 92. CIOT letter to the new Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury The CIOT has written to the incoming Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray MP, setting out tax matters for the new administration. See: LNB News 17/07/2024 22. Companies and corporation tax Supreme Court finds advisers’ fees were capital in...

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NEWS
UK public law update: Budget 2024, Brexit litigation, Windsor Framework consent, SIs, judicial review and HRA, Ministerial Code, scrutiny, ICO on Data (Use and Access) Bill (7 November 2024)

In this issue: Autumn Budget 2024 Brexit highlights Brexit SIs Subsidy control and State aid Judicial review Equality and human rights Constitutional and administrative law Information law Other Public law news LexTalk®Public Law: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Useful information Autumn Budget 2024 Bar Council responds to Autumn Budget 2024 The Bar Council has issued its reaction to the Autumn Budget, praising the ‘overall settlement for justice’. The settlement sets a departmental expenditure limit of £13.8bn for 2025–2026 for the Ministry of Justice. The Bar Council’s Chair, Sam Townend, welcomed the uplift, describing it as an overdue move towards treating justice as a core public service. He nevertheless cautioned that the sector remains far from recovery, pointing to a 20% real-terms per person cut in justice funding since 2010. To move beyond crisis...

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NEWS
Power of amendment in pensions: 3i Plc v Decesare—fetter protecting ‘accrued rights or interests in benefits already provided’ permits closure to future accrual; BBC distinguished (England and Wales)

3i Plc v Decesare (as representative member of the 3i Group Pension Plan) and other companies [2025] EWHC 3023 (Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? It is commonly understood that a ruling fixing the meaning of terms in one instrument does not bind a later court faced with different wording, yet earlier decisions can still carry weight as illustrations of how particular expressions might be interpreted elsewhere, in light of the reasoning for preferring one construction over another. In British Broadcasting Corporation v BBC Pension Trust [2024] EWCA Civ 767 (the BBC case), the Court of Appeal examined an amendment power which barred changes from operating in relation to active members whose interests were said by the scheme actuary to be affected, save where specified exceptions applied. No amendment was to take effect for active members unless one of several circumstances existed. One issue was whether ‘interests’ embraced the ability of members to accrue any future service benefits. The Court, viewing the term in its context,...

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View the related Practice Notes about Accrued rights

PRACTICE NOTES
Section 9(2B) and GMP transfers post-6 April 2016: individual/bulk routes, consent rules, receiving scheme eligibility, connected employer transfers, 2017/2018 reforms and GMP equalisation considerations

Contracting-out on a salary-related basis (also known as defined benefit (DB) contracting-out) was abolished on 6 April 2016. Before abolition, members of contracted-out salary-related (COSR) schemes could have built up one of two forms of contracted-out entitlement. In this Practice Note, these are collectively described as ‘contracted-out salary-related rights’ or, in short, ‘COSR rights’. Guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs), being contracted-out rights built up before 6 April 1997 Section 9(2B) rights (also called post-1997 contracted-out salary-related rights or post-1997 COSR rights), being contracted-out rights built up between 6 April 1997 and 5 April 2016 The framework for transferring COSR rights is prescribed by the Contracting-out (Transfer and Transfer Payment) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/1462 (the Contracting-out Transfer Regulations). HMRC has issued guidance on transferring COSR rights. This Practice Note addresses transfers carried out after the end of DB contracting-out, namely on and from 6 April 2016. For material on transfers of COSR rights made prior to the abolition of DB contracting-out, see Practice...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Buy-out of contracted-out DB rights before 6 April 2016: Section 9(2B) and GMPs—discharge, consent, cessation, wind-up, insurer criteria, HMRC and equalisation

This Practice Note concentrates on the matters that applied prior to 6 April 2016—the date on which salary-related contracting-out (often called DB contracting-out) was brought to an end—when buying out these contracted-out salary-related (COSR) entitlements: guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs)—the benefits built up by COSR scheme members as a result of contracting out between 6 April 1978 and 5 April 1997 Section 9(2B) rights (also referred to as post-1997 COSR rights)—the benefits accrued by COSR scheme members as a result of contracting out between 6 April 1997 and 5 April 2016 The legislative requirements that applied differed according to whether the relevant contracted-out rights were GMPs or Section 9(2B) rights. For guidance on the buy-out considerations from 6 April 2016 for Section 9(2B) rights and GMPs, see Practice Note: Buying out Section 9(2B) rights and GMPs from 6 April 2016. For general issues relating to buy-outs, see Practice Note: De-risking—pension buy-outs and buy-ins. For information on the ending of DB contracting-out on 6 April...

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PRACTICE NOTES
TUPE 2006 (Great Britain): Transfer of contractual and statutory employment rights, liabilities and obligations, including discrimination, pay, personal injury, share schemes, collective agreements and consultation

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE 2006), SI 2006/246 On a relevant transfer, TUPE 2006 effects a statutory novation of transferring employees’ contracts: the transferee steps into the transferor’s shoes. This Practice Note outlines the rights, powers, duties and liabilities that pass, and treats the transferor’s acts or omissions as those of the transferee in relation to transferring staff. For fuller guidance on: what amounts to a relevant transfer under TUPE 2006, see Practice Notes: TUPE—business transfers and TUPE—service provision changes who counts as transferring employees, see Practice Note: TUPE—transfer of employees the duty to inform and consult about a relevant transfer, see Practice Note: TUPE—information and consultation how TUPE 2006 protects transferring staff against contractual variations and dismissal, see Practice Notes: TUPE—variation of contract terms and TUPE—protection against dismissal For a checklist of employment-related liabilities that arise on a relevant transfer under TUPE 2006, and whether they pass from transferor to transferee, see: What...

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View the related Precedents about Accrued rights

PRECEDENTS
Termination Rights: Notice, Breach, Non‑Payment, Licence Revocation, Insolvency Events and Change of Control; Notification Duties and Survival of Accrued Rights

1 Termination Either party may end this Agreement by serving no less than [ enter number ] months’ written notice on the other party, provided that such notice shall not expire prior to the said [ enter number eg first ] anniversary of the date of this Agreement. Either party may bring this Agreement to an end at any time by giving notice in writing to the other party if: the other party commits a material breach of this Agreement that is not capable of remedy at all; the other party commits a material breach of this Agreement and fails to remedy it within [ 14 ] days of receiving written notice of that breach; the other party has not paid any sum due under this Agreement on the specified due date and that sum remains outstanding and unpaid within [ 30 ] days after the other party has been notified that the payment is overdue; or ...

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PRECEDENTS
Assignor-favouring trade mark assignment of registered and unregistered marks and pending applications, with goodwill and accrued claims; no warranties; England and Wales law

This agreement bears the date [ insert date ]... Parties [ insert name ] [ of OR a company incorporated in [ England and Wales ] with number [ insert registered number ] and whose registered office is at ] [ insert address ] ( the Assignor ); [ insert name ] [ of OR a company incorporated in [ England and Wales ] with number [ insert registered number ] and whose registered office is at ] [ insert address ] ( the Assignee ) Each of the Assignor and the Assignee constitutes a party, and together the Assignor and the Assignee are the parties... Background The Assignor holds the [ registered ] ownership of certain trade marks. The Assignee is [ insert description of the Assignee’s background/background to assignment or relevant transaction ]. [ On [ insert date ] the Assignor filed an application with the [ United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office OR European...

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PRECEDENTS
Template breach notice for non-payment with remedy period, interest (Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998), costs and express termination rights

[ insert name of agreement ]: [ insert client name ] and [ insert counter-party name ] Dear [ insert name of authorised representative of the counter-party ], [ As you are aware, we OR We ] represent [ insert client name ] (our client). Our client and [ insert counter-party name ] ([ insert short name ]) entered into an [ insert agreement name ] on [ insert date ] (the Agreement). We are instructed that [ insert counter-party short name ] is in breach of the Agreement for failing to pay £[ insert amount ] (the Debt) to our client by [ insert due date ] as required by Clause [ insert number ]. This amounts to a breach of [ an essential OR a fundamental ] term, as recognised by Clause [ insert number ]. [ Interest has accrued on the Debt from [ (and including) ] [ insert date ] under Clause [ insert number ] and, as at...

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View the related Q&As about Accrued rights

Q&As
Ground rent arrears predating a leaseholder's freehold purchase

This Q&A raises the issue of the extent to which a person who takes an assignment of the reversion to a residential lease is able to recover rent which fell due before the date upon which it takes effect Upon serving the tenant with notice of assignment of the reversion, the assignee’s rights depend on when the residential lease was granted: Leases granted before 1 January 1996: under section 141 of the Law of Property Act 1925, the assignee is entitled to rent falling due in the future. In addition, as established in Re King, the assignee may pursue arrears that accrued before the assignment, and once the transfer takes effect, the outgoing landlord’s ability to recover those sums is lost. Leases granted on or after 1 January 1996: the Landlord and Tenant (Covenants) Act 1995 applies. By virtue of LT(C)A 1995, section 3(3)(b), an assignee of the reversion is entitled to rent which becomes payable after the assignment takes effect. In...

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Q&As
Pre‑Brexit claims: retained EU law or assimilated law; are UK courts bound by CJEU case law?

The question considered by the Supreme Court in Lipton, and the Interpretation Act (or accrued rights) analysis In Lipton v BA Cityflyer, the UK Supreme Court, speaking obiter, examined the temporal reach of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EU(W)A 2018). The issue was whether the provisions on retained EU law (REUL) must be applied by courts to disputes founded on facts predating IP completion day at the end of 2020, and to rights and liabilities that had already crystallised by that point. For ease of reference in this Q&A, matters turning on facts from before IP completion day are called ‘pre-Brexit cases’, while those arising from facts after that date are termed ‘post-Brexit cases’. On one interpretation, the response is that the EU(W)A 2018 provisions concerning REUL and assimilated law have no application to pre-Brexit cases. The temporal operation of REUL and of assimilated law is straightforward: before IP completion day, the UK’s domestic law operated insofar as it implemented the UK’s EU...

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