It seems that our 2017 newsletters are covering issues which we have reported on recently. However we do have an important decision by the highest Court in England and Wales, the Supreme Court, in relation to pension claims.
We have reported before on the growing concerns of the lack of rights for people who choose to cohabit as opposed to marry or enter a civil partnership.
We have reminded readers before that there is no such thing as a 'common law' wife or husband. As such, cohabitants have no automatic right to a property on death or to any part of a deceased's Estate irrespective of how long the parties have been in their relationship.
The recent Supreme Court case a woman was given the right to her late partner's pension.
The fact of the case are very sad in that Ms Brewster had lived with Mr McMullan for about 10 years. He suddenly died in 2009 two days after their engagement. The circumstances are even more tragic because Mr McMullan died over the Christmas period.
Mr McMullan was employed by a public transport service provider and had paid into the local government pension scheme for 15 years. Following Mr McMullan's untimely death the pension administrator would not pay Ms Brewster a survivor's pension first because they were unmarried and second because Mr McMullan had not completed a form naming her as his survivor.
An interesting side note to this point is that it was not a requirement that married couples filled in the survivor nomination form. Had Ms Brewster and Mr McMullan been married she would automatically have been entitled to his share of Mr McMullan's pension.
It is settled law that cohabitees do not have automatic rights to pensions or other assets upon separation or death.
Ms Brewster's lawyers argued that the requirement for cohabitees to produce and sign the survivor nomination form was a form of discrimination. The 5 judges in the Supreme Court were unanimous and agreed that the requirement for a nomination form should be removed from the pension scheme.
The judgement brings the law and practice in this area in Northern Ireland in line with England, Wales and Scotland in relation to the rights that a surviving cohabitee may have to their partner's pension.
As we have previously reported, there are some six million people living together in cohabitant relationships and this judgement does represent a step in the right direction for cohabitants. However the judgement does not give cohabitants the automatic right to a cohabitant's property or other assets on separation or death.
Accordingly, if you are in a relationship and would like to discuss any issues arising such as the need to make a Will or agree how your property is co-owned, contact us.