YMCA pensions row referred to higher court

Governance | Tania Mason | 20 Mar 2010

The pension dispute between the Hirwaun YMCA chair and the YMCA pension scheme has been referred to the Cardiff County Court to be heard by a Chancery Circuit judge.

The Hirwaun branch chair, Colin Shaw, is asking the court to throw out a statutory demand by the YMCA Pension Plan Trustee Ltd for an £18,200 Section 75 debt that the pension scheme claims the charity owes.

Shaw does not dispute that two of the charity’s former employees paid into the pension fund or that the shortfall exists, but argues that it is the pension scheme’s fault that the debt has arisen, because it did not manage the scheme properly to ensure there would be sufficient funds available to meet its obligations. “It’s their debt, not our debt,” said Shaw.

He says the YMCA branch will close if its clubhouse has to be sold to pay the debt.

Shaw said the Aberdare County Court judge that heard the case on Thursday was sympathetic to the charity’s plight but that to set the demand aside as Shaw was requesting would have far-reaching implications. So he referred it to the higher court.

A date for the hearing has not yet been set but is expected to be in about a month.

Shaw said he had already been served with a statement of costs by Bates Wells and Braithwaite, the lawyers acting for the pension scheme, totalling £3,200, but Shaw said he told them: “You haven’t won yet.”

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.