Latest news

A working party of individuals from across the pensions industry, including representatives of the Department for Work and Pensions, has published a code to govern the way that pension incentive exercises are run.  Such exercises may constitute the offer of enhanced transfer values, generally to deferred members, or the offer of a pension increase exchange, […]

Summary The Consumer Prices Advisory Committee (CPAC) has recommended a change in the method of calculation of the RPI, to eliminate “unjustified causes” in the difference between Retail Price inflation and Consumer Price inflation (CPI).  Any such change is likely to result in a reduction in scheme liabilities that are linked to the RPI, although […]

Summary The case, in the High Court, of Procter & Gamble (P&G) v Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget SCA (SCA) tested the extent to which early retirement benefits may be considered “old-age benefits” and, as such, exempt from the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE). The Court determined that an early retirement benefit can indeed be […]

Summary The Pensions Regulator has issued a report detailing the key findings from its third record-keeping survey, conducted among a representative sample of trust and contract-based pension schemes. The main findings were: awareness of the regulator’s guidance has remained very high – in 94% of schemes the administrator was aware of the Regulator’s record-keeping guidance – […]

Summary UK pension schemes may be able to reclaim tax paid to the French tax authorities following a recent decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Background The French authorities levy a withholding tax, of between 15% and 25%, on dividends paid to approved investment funds that are not resident in France, whereas no […]

State pension reform The Queen’s Speech outlined plans for legislation that will introduce a flat-rate state pension for new pensioners. The current state pension is £107.45 a week for those with a complete National Insurance record and can be increased to £137.35 with pension credit. The flat rate of £140 a week (rising to £155 […]

Summary On 4 April 2012, the High Court ruled, in the case of Raithatha v Williamson that the pension of Mr Williamson, who was bankrupt, could be used to repay his creditors. Until now, it has been accepted that pension benefits are protected from creditors. However, as Mr Williamson had reached pensionable age under the scheme in […]

The Government has confirmed the following figures, relating to the new automatic enrolment obligations, for the 2012/13 tax year: £8,105 for the automatic enrolment earnings trigger, equal to the PAYE threshold, £5,564 for the lower limit of the qualifying earnings band, equal to the NICs LEL, and £42,475 for the upper limit of the qualifying […]

Following the Test-Achats  ruling in the European Court of Justice last year, which decided that premiums for, and benefits payable under, insurance contracts must be calculated on a gender-neutral basis from 21 December 2012, the European Commission has now published further guidance.  This confirms that the requirement for annuities to be priced on a gender-neutral basis does […]

The Pensions Act 2011 received Royal Assent on 3 November.  The main changes made by the Act, in relation to occupational schemes and their employers, are to: accelerate the existing timetable for increasing the State Pension Age to 66, reflect changes to the auto-enrolment requirements agreed following a review  in 2010 and reflect the introduction […]