Independent Trustee Services Ltd (the trustee) was the sole trustee of the Ilford Pension Scheme (the Scheme), which was underfunded when the sponsoring employer went into administration in 2004. There was a proposal that the trustee should buy out certain benefits for members of the Scheme, for whom no Pension Protection Fund (PPF) compensation would be available, before the Scheme entered an assessment period.
The first appeal ruling from the newly formed UK Supreme Court concerned the construction of a clause setting out the distribution of assets in a collapsed structured investment vehicle (“SIV”). For the creditors attempting to salvage the remains of the SIV, and onlookers in similar situations, the judicial process has been a rollercoaster ride which has left them reeling.
On 17 September the DWP published a consultation paper (attaching draft regulations) in which it proposes that certain corporate restructurings will not trigger an employer debt under section 75 of the Pensions Act 1995. Following on from amendments introduced by regulations in 2008, the draft regulations also make some technical amendments to the employer debt regime, which are intended to ease its operation in practice.
Section 75: a reminder
Where the Courts Service failed to notify the Land Registry of a bankruptcy petition with the effect that property was disposed of without a pending action having been registered, the trustee in bankruptcy had a right to claim damages.
DWP consults on amendments to the employer-debt regulations
The making of a bankruptcy order alone will not deprive a judgment creditor of a final charging order where it is obtained before the bankruptcy order is made.
The administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) have been intending to propose a scheme of arrangement under the English Companies Act to enable them to distribute several billions of dollars of assets held on trust by the company in the face of difficulties in establishing who was entitled to the trust assets; in particular, they had not received responses from all potentially interested clients, could not rely on the accuracy of the company's records and had not received all the information requested from sub-custodians and other intermediaries.
To avoid an asset reverting to a bankrupt after the end of his period of bankruptcy, the asset must be realised. An assignment of a beneficial interest for a future price does not amount to a realisation.
The courts have the power to and increasingly will make a civil restraint order where an individual persistently issues claims that are totally without merit.
The Pensions Regulator recently became involved in the current controversies attaching to pre-pack arrangements.