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DISCLAIMER; this account is in no way a fair representation of either the event or the views of any of the participants . It  is produced to provoke thought and pleasure – blue sky on a grey day.

In a shock outcome, the Play Pen lunch, swayed by a leading pension lawyer’s advocacy for Generation Y, approved a new Funding Requirement which, if adopted in legislation, would provide relief for the pension-poor generations denied a place at the DB banquet (for which they pick up the bill).

The proposal is that DB schemes need only fund for benefits guaranteed by the PPF. Any extra pension would be paid at the trustee’s discretion according to scheme rules or, should there be insufficient funding, at a level agreed between those with superior benefits.

The proposal had been put forward by the said lawyer after a passionate debate on the negative impact of the Nortel Lehman judgement which will provide unwanted and unintended protection to those with DB benefits to the cost of those who either through the collapse or decreased capacity of the sponsor will pick up the tab- the younger generations.

The lawyer had argued that the Nortel Lehman judgement had provided the Pension Regulator with an obligation to enforce the pension debt over all other debt in insolvency. While no-one felt pre-pack solutions such as Silentnight’s were ideal, they did at least allow for continued employment for staff and not company closure.

 Arguments were made by others, notably T***er and B***er, that DB now looked so toxic to lenders and shareholders that the Nortel Lehman judgement appeared to be a cause and not a solution to corporate insolvencies and would only benefit a minority of over-pampered baby-boomers and the PPF. S**e B***r went so far as to advocate DC for all though with limited support.

Speaking for Generation Y, L**a T*****li argued that as a 20 something who had recently emigrated from Greece, she knew all about the impact of over indulging the baby boomers.

B*n M****y, a very youthful thirty something concurred and in an outbreak of inter-generational solidarity , the remaining Generation X’ers including the aforesaid B***er and T***er and the previously unmentioned M***n G**d stood foursquare behind their younger colleagues.

The meeting concluded with a rousing rendition of “My generation” before adjourning to the steps of St Pauls Cathedral.

For more check Kate Morely’s first blog  http://www.pensionsweek.com/Comment-Analysis/Talking-bout-Y-generation