69. The paper then reviewed the advice the Trustee had been given and the various powers of Trustee and employer in the trust documentation. It said that in the period leading up to the implementation of the above decisions, the Trustee and its advisers had requested the Principal Employer to-
• provide LPI increases from the resources of the Fund (ie without any adjustment to benefits or employee contributions) and;
• guarantee increases to all pensions in payment at a minimum of 70% of RPI (ie to change the funded discretionary practice into a guarantee).
The Principal Employer was said to have agreed to the first but refused to agree to the second request but had confirmed that it was not its intention to vary the practice of awarding discretionary increases to pensions in payment which it had operated for a number of years. Three of the complainants comment that prior to 1996 the Trustee was not making proposals about increases in pensions: the proposals were coming from the Human Resources Department of IBM UK.