The aim of this report is to investigate the Douglas Harvey Barber v Guardian Royal Exchange case. The main findings of this report is to see what effect Douglas Harvey Barber had on the financial services industry before and after his case.
Background
Douglas Harvey Barber
q Barber Douglas Harvey was born on 29th September 1928 in Derbyshire. q He died on 26th May 1989 at age 60. q He worked for Guardian Royal Exchange until he was made redundant at age 52. q He was a member of his companies “Contracted Out”, Non Contributory, Occupational Pension Scheme that had retirement ages Of 57 for women and 62 for men q Members made redundant within 5 years of retirement were given an immediate early retirement pension.
Guardian Royal Exchange
The Guardian name was established in 1821. Originally Guardian Fire & Life, the Company was renamed as Guardian Assurance in 1902.
In the mid 1960 's, Guardian Assurance established a new base at Lytham St Annes in Lancashire for its expanding Life and Pensions business
In 1968 the company merged with Royal Exchange Assurance to form the Guardian royal exchange group
In 1999, the Life and Pensions businesses of GRE (which included Guardian Financial Services) along with the Guardian name were acquired by AEGON UK part of the global AEGON ay group
What Happened To Douglas Harvey Barber and The Effect?
In 1980 the Guardian Royal Exchange made Douglas Harvey Barber redundant. As Douglas Harvey Barber pension scheme was “Contracted Out” his company pension replaced the Second State pension and therefore he received a larger lump sum than other workers that was probably tax free that could spend or invest. The options available to Douglas Harvey Barber for income was to get a job and this became difficult, as he was 52 years old at the time, the only income he would be able to receive is unemployment benefits. If he had been a Woman he would have been within 5 years of retirement and