Scheme administration employer payment meaning

In this issue: Budget and Finance Bills Individuals and income tax Employment taxes Stamp and transfer taxes Companies and corporation tax VAT Tax management and litigation International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Budget and Finance Bills Finance Bill 2024 receives Royal Assent on 22 February 2024 The Finance Bill 2023–24, also referred to as Finance Bill 2024 (and the Autumn Finance Bill 2023), has: completed all remaining Parliamentary stages on 21 February 2024, the same day a refreshed set of Explanatory Notes was issued, capturing the new clause and other government amendments approved on 5 February 2024; and obtained Royal Assent on 22 February 2024, and is now the Finance Act 2024. See: House of Lords calendar for 22 February 2024, the Stages tab for FB 2024 on the UK Parliament website,...

In this issue: Pension Schemes Bill Salary sacrifice Scheme governance CDC schemes Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pension Schemes Bill Employer surplus-payment provisions pass Grand Committee scrutiny unchanged On day three of Grand Committee consideration of the Pension Schemes Bill (19 January 2026), the Lords examined Clauses 9–10 concerning distribution of scheme surpluses. Peers tabled a suite of tightening measures: redefining ‘surplus’ as ‘assets’; obliging employers to share surpluses with members; compelling benefit uplifts, including inflation protection; bolstering member and union engagement; curbing the Secretary of State’s regulation-making remit; placing actuarial and endgame provisions on the face of the Bill; and revising insolvency ranking where employers had previously extracted surplus. Ministers, fronted by Baroness Sherlock, resisted, rejecting rigid statutory prescriptions in favour of a regime built on trustee judgement, fiduciary obligations, actuarial sign-off and TPR oversight. In light of the government’s stance, all amendments were withdrawn or not moved, and Clauses 9...

This practice note applies to defined benefit occupational pension schemes The importance of identifying a scheme’s statutory employer(s) A fundamental element of the law governing occupational pension schemes, particularly defined benefit (DB) schemes, is that the main burden of supporting the scheme lies with its sponsoring employers, as a matter of law alone indeed. An employer might have exited the scheme previously without settling all liabilities owed to it; in such circumstances they may still be a ‘statutory employer’ even though they no longer participate. They may therefore continue to bear obligations in relation to the scheme. Under the registered pension scheme regime, various specific obligations fall upon those who qualify as ‘statutory employers’, a notion carried over from the earlier tax-exempt approval regime in force before A-day (for further information on the pre A-day regime, see The pre A-day pensions tax regime [Archived]). These duties will typically extend beyond those that a participating employer assumes under the scheme’s trust deed and rules. For...

ARCHIVED This archived Practice Note explains how coronavirus affected trustees administering pension schemes, summarising the approaches taken by the Pensions Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund, the Pensions Ombudsman and other regulators. It also outlines the consequences for public service pension schemes, including measures under the Coronavirus Act 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for those running schemes, and this Note records the stances adopted by the various pensions regulatory bodies (including the Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF)) alongside the practical issues trustees encountered. It also addresses the effect of coronavirus on public service arrangements, including impacts arising via the Coronavirus Act 2020. TPR’s position TPR consistently indicated it would regulate in a pragmatic and sympathetic manner where breaches arose from COVID-19. It introduced a number of easements, with some ending on 30 June 2020, for example: the option to pause DB transfer processing permitting delays to filing revised recovery plans and others extended to 30...

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and is not maintained. What is the CJRS? At the Spring Budget 2020, the government introduced a range of steps to support businesses through the coronavirus pandemic (eg suspending business rates). One such measure was the temporary ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ (CJRS), which was generally available to UK employers with a PAYE payroll, subject to eligibility rules. The scheme started on 1 March 2020 and, following several extensions, remained in place until 30 September 2021. Its purpose was to help employers whose operations were badly hit by coronavirus and who might otherwise have needed to make redundancies. Staff included in the CJRS were referred to as ‘furloughed’. Under the CJRS, employers were able to claim for furloughed workers as follows: Up to 31 July 2020: 80% of an employee’s wages, capped at £2,500 per month, plus employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) and pension contributions—the amount of pension contributions recoverable up to 31 July 2020 is discussed below ...