National Employment Savings Trust meaning

On 26 November 2025, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented the Labour administration’s second Budget, widely referred to simply as Budget 2025. On the same day, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) set out its economic and fiscal outlook for the UK. Proceedings opened poorly, and chaotically, with an OBR forecast leaking amidst a slew of prior government-led briefings and the release of a frustratingly static index of ‘Budget 2025 tax related documents’ to which hyperlinks were not inserted until close to 8pm, together with a piecemeal, stop‑start publication of tax information across scattered web pages, sending readers on a fruitless treasure hunt for clarity or coherence and with no appearance whatsoever of the Overview of Tax Legislation and Rates (OOTLAR). Headline measures comprised, among other items, extending, for another three years to April 2031, the existing personal allowance and income tax bands for taxpayers, and increasing income tax rates applied to property, savings and dividend receipts, as well as imposing employer and employee National Insurance contributions (NICs)...

The Pensions Regulator v Been London Design Ltd [2026] UKUT 88 (AAC) What are the practical implications of this case? The initial determination was sent back because a factual mistake had occurred, and that mistake was rooted in a legal error. In practical terms, the lesson for the FTT about handling factual missteps is obvious. As for the points of law that underlay the FTT’s ruling, the AAC considered there to be no workable departure from legislation requiring that notices are served on a company’s registered office. In addition, if an authority intends to depend on electronic service (that is, email), the would‑be recipient must first have provided written agreement to receive service in that manner. The AAC also recognised that updates to Companies House records may not be immediate, and so parties relying on service at registered offices might have to exercise patience and persistence while the official address is in the course of being amended. What was the background? Employers are obliged automatically to...

Government policy For many years, as a feature of government policy in the UK, the establishment of private pensions to sit alongside state provision has been actively promoted. This initially took the form of occupational pension schemes set up by employers for their workforces and, in later years, broadened to include personal pensions arranged by individuals themselves. The principal means of encouragement has been the granting of tax reliefs, both to those creating pension schemes and to their members, in respect of contributions, pension fund income, and pension benefits. It should also be recognised that, until very recently, neither the offering of private pensions in the UK nor membership of a pension scheme was compulsory; even now, exceptions apply (see ‘Stakeholder pension schemes’ and ‘Automating enrolment and the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)’ below). General administration of private pension schemes rests with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), while the Pensions Regulator ensures schemes are conducted properly as required by law. HMRC is responsible for...

Automatic enrolment duties The auto-enrolment framework, created under Part 1 of the Pensions Act 2008 (PenA 2008), places three principal enrolment obligations on employers: automatically enrol every ‘eligible jobholder’ into an ‘automatic enrolment scheme’ (the auto-enrolment duty) enrol ‘non-eligible jobholders’ into an ‘automatic enrolment scheme’ when they opt in enrol ‘entitled workers’ who ask to join a scheme into a registered pension scheme In broad terms, from 2017 the enrolment duties take effect for an employer on the date their first worker starts employment. The minimum quality criteria an automatic enrolment scheme must meet depend on the type of arrangement, for example whether it is a defined benefit (DB) or defined contribution (DC) scheme. To assist employers in meeting the auto-enrolment duty, the government set up a low-cost pension scheme — the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) — which was fully compliant. Many employers still use NEST, and the government together with the Pensions Regulator have also issued rules and...

A-day 'A-day' is the widely used term for the broad pension tax 'simplification' reforms that began on 6 April 2006. The changes covered: how much pension contribution was allowed, the kinds of schemes an individual could invest in, the sums that could be taken (and when), and the choices available for any remaining fund. A-day also introduced the annual allowance and the (now abolished) lifetime allowance. See: Annual allowance and Lifetime allowance. AFPS AFPS: Armed forces pension scheme; see Practice Note: Public sector pensions and family proceedings. Accrual rate The speed at which pension benefits build as pensionable service is completed in a final salary scheme, eg 1/60 for each year of pensionable service. Accrued benefits The benefits earned in respect of service up to a specified date. Added years Extra pension provided by adding further years of pensionable service in a salary-related scheme. Such additional years are secured via transfer payments or through additional voluntary contributions/augmentation...