Latest news

We reported in November (here) on the Government’s proposals to implement a cap on charges levied on members in workplace pension schemes with effect from April 2014.  While it is important that members of such schemes receive value for money, in the comment at the end of our article we did raise some concerns that […]

We reported last October (here) on the Pension Protection Fund’s (PPF’s) proposals for the 2014-15 levy. The PPF has now published the final Levy Determination, confirming that: the levy scaling factor will remain unchanged from 2013-14 at 0.73; the scheme based levy multiplier will also remain at last year’s level, being 0.000056 and the estimate […]

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced a delay in making Experian failure scores available to levy payers. Experian is replacing Dun & Bradstreet as the PPF’s appointed insolvency risk provider.  While the insolvency scores provided by Experian will not be used in the calculation of the levy until the 2015/16 levy year, the PPF […]

Background In 2011, the Supreme Court found, in the case of Bridge Trustees v Houldsworth and another, that: benefits subject to a guaranteed interest rate and money purchase benefits which had been converted into a scheme pension remained money purchase benefits.  This judgment raised the possibility that a deficit could arise in relation to money purchase […]

Summary The Government wishes to ensure that the market for defined contribution workplace pension schemes provides good value, given the number of people expected to be automatically enrolled into them between 2012 and 2017, and so is considering three options for capping charges in defined contribution workplace pension schemes: a cap of 1% of funds […]

Introduction The new régime of automatic enrolment (AE) is bringing many people who have not previously saved for a pension into the scope of workplace pensions.  The OFT notes therefore that it is important to ensure that pension arrangements being used for AE, which will be predominantly defined contribution, deliver the best possible value for […]

The Pensions Regulator has published new versions of Codes of Practice 5 and 6, which deal with reporting late payment of contributions to occupational pension schemes and personal pension schemes, respectively.  We concentrate here on occupational schemes and the responsibilities of trustees. The revised Code is rather longer than its predecessor.  Whereas the earlier version […]

The Board of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has confirmed its intention not to change the levy rules for 2014/15.  This is in line with its policy (introduced for the 2012/13 levy) to set the levy rules for three years at a time in order to reduce volatility in schemes’ levies and enhance predictability.  2014/15 […]

The Equality Act 2010 contains a dispensation for occupational pension schemes, which allows them to calculate dependants’ pensions for surviving civil partners based only on service since December 2005, plus an addition of 50% of the GMP accrued by the member between April 1988 and December 2005.  From next Summer, same-sex couples will be able […]

2014-15 levy The PPF has announced that the levy for 2014-15 will be calculated using the same rules as for 2013-14.  This is expected to lead to an increase of about 10% in levy bills, because of lower Gilt yields being used in the valuation of schemes’ protected liabilities. Insolvency risk provider After a competitive […]