SWEDEN - Svenskt Näringsliv, a Swedish employer confederation, is suing SPP Livförsäkring, a life and pensions provider, over its failure to index insurance contracts and pay a pension supplement to the confederation's members.

Svenskt Näringsliv has taken out pension insurance with SPP Liv.

However, according to the organisation, the pensions provider has failed to fully adjust pensions in its defined benefit (DB) portfolio, which has led to the confederation having to compensate its members and pay out a pension supplement.

The confederation is suing for SEK2.5m (€262,000) in compensation.

Although Svenskt Näringsliv conceded the problem involved only 300 people in its case, it said it would pursue the lawsuit as a matter of principle.

It also estimated 35,000-40,000 individuals in total had been affected by SPP's decision not to pay out pension supplements.

Should the lawsuit prove successful, many of these individuals could also claim back the pension supplement, it added.

Svenskt Näringsliv claimed SPP charged a fee for the indexation of DB contracts in accordance with the ITP agreement - ITP pension is the occupational supplementary pensions for professionals.

The contract was signed with Alecta in 1996, but since then, SPP has been spun out, sold and demutualised and is now owned by Norway's Storebrand.

SPP argues it is not bound by the agreement signed by Alecta.

It further claims SPP should have been notified of any changes to the agreement and that changing it unilaterally would have been unlawful.

Sarah McPhee, chief executive of SPP, said she was confident it would win the case and that the SPP had been unable to act in any other way.

The Swedish government has assigned Pensionsmyndigheten, the Swedish Pensions Agency, to work out how best to inform pensioners and pension savers about their total pension assets and prognosis.

The agency is to look into the possibility of providing a complete pension prognosis of an individual's state and occupational pension provision in its annual value statement to members, the so-called Orange Envelope.

It will also investigate how best this type of information can be provided.

Ole Settergren will be responsible for the investigation - an interim report is to be handed in to the Ministry of Social Affairs on 1 December and a final report on 5 October 2011.
 

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