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The Government has published the Draft Taxation of Pensions Bill, which will implement the flexibilities announced in the 2014 Budget and introduce anti-avoidance measures.  If an individual does not wish to buy an annuity with his money purchase pension savings he will have two new options available: flexi-access drawdown and uncrystallised funds pension lump sums. […]

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 required that the Government undertake a review of survivor benefits in occupational pension schemes, considering the differences in survivor benefits between widows and widowers and between opposite-sex survivors and same-sex survivors, as well as the costs of eliminating such differences. Background Differences arise as a result of legislative […]

Following the Budget announcements that no members of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes would have to buy an annuity in future – and that, indeed, they could take the whole of their savings in one cash sum at retirement – the Government issued a consultation about the new flexibility.  The consultation closed in June and […]

The Government has published the Pension Schemes Bill, which will permit the introduction of Collective Defined Contribution schemes. Defining Ambition The Bill starts by defining three types of scheme: defined benefit (“DB”) defined contribution (“DC”) and shared risk or defined ambition (“DA”). A DB scheme is defined as one which provides a certain level of […]

The Pensions Act, dealing mainly with the introduction of the single-tier State Pension and the increase in State Pension Age to 67, was enacted on 14 May.  We have updated our earlier commentary on the Bill, to reflect subsequent amendments. State Pension The Act makes provision for the new single-tier State Pension that will be […]

Following a consultation in the Winter, the Regulator has now published its final documents setting out how it will regulate scheme funding in the future, taking account of its new statutory objective “to minimise any adverse impact on the sustainable growth of an employer” and reflecting what they have learned since 2005.  There is a […]

On 29 May the PPF published its consultation on the calculation of levies for the three years commencing with the 2015/16 year.  This consultation focusses on the design of the levy framework – which affects the distribution of the levy between schemes.  There will be a further consultation in the Autumn, covering the PPF’s estimate […]

The Government has issued a consultation: “Better workplace pensions: further measures for savers” regarding its proposals for the further regulation of defined contribution (DC) occupational pension schemes. The most-widely reported proposal is a cap on the annual charge paid by members, of 0.75% of funds with effect from April 2015.  This cap will apply to […]

In his 2014 Budget the Chancellor, George Osborne, surprised us all with his announcement regarding much greater flexibility being offered to members of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes when they retire.  The proposals are due to take effect from April 2015, although they remain subject to consultation at present, the consultation closing in June. The […]

A company appealed against its Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levy on the grounds that the D&B failure score for a subsidiary company in Luxembourg was not accurate. The PPF Ombudsman agreed that the failure score was not accurate and ordered the PPF to recalculate the levy. The PPF appealed – and the High Court has […]