Final salary pension scheme meaning

This Checklist offers an overview of the information an annual benefit statement must contain under regs 16, 16A and 17 of the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/2734 (the Disclosure Regs 2013). It applies irrespective of whether the pension arrangement in question is a defined benefit scheme, a cash balance arrangement or any other money purchase set‑up. Benefit statements for benefits other than money purchase benefits Active, deferred and pension credit members who are entitled to benefits other than money purchase benefits (for example, final salary or career average benefits) may ask the trustees or managers of the scheme for a benefit statement once in every 12‑month period. The trustees must provide the statement as soon as practicable and, in any event, within two months of their request. The precise content of the annual benefit statement varies according to the member’s status, and the accompanying table identifies the information requirements for benefit statements for each relevant type of member...

Aon plc, the British‑American management consultancy, said it would ‘naturally’ give company directors more sway over a scheme if trustees of defined benefit plans were obliged to obtain the sponsor’s agreement to a new ‘statement of strategy’, as outlined by TPR earlier in March 2024. TPR also stated that managers of defined benefit retirement schemes must lodge the strategy alongside their routine valuation documents from 22 September 2024. A defined benefit pension delivers a guaranteed income each year for life, determined by a worker’s final or average salary...

In this issue: The Pensions Regulator Pension Protection Fund Pension Schemes Bill The pensions tax regime Pensions accounting Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers The Pensions Regulator TPR publishes 2025 DC landscape report highlighting consolidation trends The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has released its 2025 overview of the UK occupational defined contribution (DC) market, confirming a continued move towards fewer, larger schemes and urging trustees, particularly those of smaller arrangements, to test value for savers and consolidate where it is lacking. The analysis shows DC scheme numbers fell by 15% to 790 in 2025, chiefly as schemes with fewer than 5,000 members left the market. Over the period, total assets rose 22% from £205bn to £249bn and memberships increased by 7%, reflecting consolidation. Master trusts now dominate, holding 30.1 million memberships (92%) and £208bn of assets (83%). TPR stressed that larger schemes are typically better positioned to deliver stronger investment performance and...

In this issue: The Pensions Regulator Pensions dashboards Taxation Members and benefits Funding, surplus and investment Public sector pensions Dates for your diary Trackers The Pensions Regulator TPR announces full benefits secured for Box Clever pension members after ITV case The Pensions Regulator (TPR) confirms it has secured full benefits for all 2,800 members of the Box Clever Group Pension Scheme, bringing its long-running case against ITV to a close. Individuals who had received payments at Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levels since 2014 have now moved to the ITV Pension Scheme and will receive full scheme entitlement plus back payments. TPR has also released a regulatory intervention report setting out how, for more than a decade, it pursued ITV, deploying its Financial Support Direction (FSD) powers to require the broadcaster to underpin the scheme following the 2011 collapse of Box Clever—a joint venture between Granada (now ITV) and Thorn (now Carmelite). After ITV’s legal challenges,...

What is the PCSPS? Until 30 September 2002, the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS) was the only pension option for the civil service. From 1 October 2002, four distinct sections were introduced within the PCSPS: Classic (the 1972 Section), Classic Plus (a blend of Classic and Premium), Premium (the 2002 Section) and Nuvos (the 2007 Section). The first three operate on a final salary basis, whereas Nuvos is a career-average section. For further details on how these sections were established, see below. Subsequently, on 1 April 2015, a new arrangement, the Civil Service Pension scheme (CSP) alpha, was created to provide benefits on a career average basis. When alpha was brought in, the government acted to close the PCSPS to future accrual, subject to: the retention of a final salary link in the PCSPS for active members, meaning benefits earned in the PCSPS are calculated using final salary at the point of leaving the civil service rather than when active PCSPS membership ended... ...

ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note summarises the Fee-Paid Judicial Pension Scheme (FPJPS), introduced by the Judicial Pensions (Fee-Paid Judges) Regulations 2017, SI 2017/522, arising from O’Brien v Ministry of Justice. It covers the statutory framework, governance, eligibility, contributions and benefit design. This note is not maintained... Statutory framework The Judicial Pension Scheme includes several arrangements: Judicial Pension Scheme 1981 (JPS 1981). Salaried judges appointed before 31 March 1995 will usually be members of this unfunded final salary scheme, created under JPA 1981. Judicial Pension Scheme 1993 (JPS 1993 or JUPRA). Salaried judges appointed between 31 March 1995 and 31 March 2015 will generally be members of this unfunded final salary scheme, established under JPRA 1993. Note that: There is an entitlement to elect to move from JPS 1981 to JUPRA at any point up to six months after retirement. For more information, see Eligibility, below. The Ministry of Justice began an options exercise in October 2023 to...

Ways of providing death-in-service benefits Employers commonly provide their staff with death-in-service benefits (often referred to as 'life assurance' or 'life cover' benefits). This protection is ordinarily limited to employees (hence the term 'death in service', reflecting the label itself), although in certain situations an employer may decide to extend the benefit beyond retirement. Employers can deliver these benefits in three ways: via a dedicated trust-based arrangement that, while registered as a pension scheme for the purposes of Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004 (FA 2004), provides only death-in-service benefits—such arrangements are frequently known as 'life cover only schemes', 'death-in-service schemes' or 'standalone life assurance schemes', and no other benefits through a registered pension scheme (usually an occupational pension scheme) in which the death-in-service benefits form part of the broader benefit structure of the scheme as a whole. In this type of arrangement or model, a scheme member may receive: both death benefits (including death-in-service benefits) together with...

In the Employment Tribunals Case number: [ Insert case number ] Between: [ Insert name of claimant ] (Claimant) and [ Insert name of respondent ] (Respondent) Claimant's schedule of loss 1. Details Net basic pay per week (after deductions): £[ Insert amount ] Respondent’s yearly pension contributions/annual pension entitlement: [ [ Insert amount, e.g. £x ] OR [ Insert details of pension scheme, e.g. 1/80 final salary scheme with related lump sum ] ] Yearly value of bonus/other employment perks: £[ Insert amount ] Notice period under the contract: [ Insert period, e.g. x weeks or x months ] Claimant’s date of birth: [ Insert date ] Date employment ended: [ [ Insert date ] ] Age at termination: [ [ Insert age ] ] 2. ...