Scheme Pays meaning

What was the background to the PPF's consultation on the 2025/26 levy rules? The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is financed through a levy charged to all defined benefit pension schemes. What each scheme pays depends partly on its size and partly on the likelihood of it entering the PPF, assessed by both the scheme’s funding position and the sponsoring employer’s insolvency risk. Every year, before the levy is applied, the PPF runs a consultation setting out proposals on the total levy it expects to collect and the approach for allocating charges to individual schemes. Although the core methodology typically remains broadly consistent year on year, the consultation details adjustments to key assumptions and identifies specific elements of the methodology that are being revised. What was the outcome? The consultation was conducted from 12 September to 23 October 2024, and the outcome was issued, a little later than first anticipated, on 30 January 2025...

Original news Mrs H (CAS-65551-M8D0)—22 August 2024 Summary The Pensions Ombudsman has dismissed a complaint regarding a discretionary pension established by statute. The scheme’s provisions were outdated and offered no benefit to deferred members. To be entitled to a pension, an individual had to leave the Salvation Army’s service and make a claim—something the complainant had not done. The preservation legislation did not apply because no employer-provided resources existed (Salvation Army workers are viewed not as employees but as officers of religion). The Ombudsman’s decision serves as a reminder that the rules of a pension scheme determine a person’s eligibility for benefits. What were the facts? Mrs H was a commissioned officer for the Salvation Army (SA)...

In this issue: Data protection Retirement options Pension Schemes Bill Taxation The Pensions Regulator Dates for your diary Trackers Data protection GDPR breach doesn’t require proof of third-party access (Farley v Paymaster (1836) Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 1117) In Farley v Paymaster (1836) Ltd, the Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s ruling ([2024] EWHC 383 (KB)) which had struck out data protection claims raised by pension scheme members after the scheme administrator, having failed to update its database, sent annual benefit statements containing personal data to out‑of‑date addresses. The officers pursued claims for data misuse and GDPR breaches, seeking compensation for non‑material harm—namely anxiety, alarm, distress and embarrassment—on the basis that their personal data had been posted to unknown third parties. At first instance, most claims were struck out because the claimants were found not to have a real prospect of success, due to insufficient evidence of damage and no act amounting to misuse, since...

THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES IN RELATION TO DEFINED BENEFIT OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES This Practice Note sets out approaches for addressing a section 75 debt in the context of a transaction, with particular emphasis on multi-employer schemes where a range of options may exist. It also outlines considerations connected to the Pensions Regulator's clearance process and the notifiable events regime. For trustee-focused considerations when deciding how a section 75 debt should be managed on an employment cessation event, see Practice Note: employment cessation events—trustee decision-making process. For matters specific to section 75 debts triggered during a group reorganisation, see Practice Note: Intra-group reorganisations and pensions. Determining whether a section 75 debt will be triggered Section 75 debt triggers A section 75 debt (often called an 'employer debt') may become payable by the employer of a defined benefit occupational pension scheme where: the scheme is a multi-employer arrangement and an employment cessation event occurs in relation to that employer (described in this Practice...

Introduction GPs working in the NHS typically practise in partnerships, or within NHS out-of-hours or walk-in centres. Private GPs can be self-employed or employed by larger organisations, such as health insurance providers. Until 1 April 2019, GPs were required to secure their own professional indemnity insurance. Historically, cover came from one of the three principal Medical Defence Organisations (MDOs): the Medical Defence Union (MDU), the Medical Protection Society (MPS) and the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS), each ensuring the legal obligation was satisfied. In 2019 and 2020, two new government schemes were launched to deliver state-backed indemnity for GPs and practice staff, removing the need for them to arrange and pay for their own cover in respect of liability for clinical negligence linked to the provision of NHS services. The National Health Service () Regulations 2019 (the 2019 Regulations), SI 2019/334 (CNSGP), effective from 1 April 2019, covers GP practice clinical negligence liabilities arising on or after 1 April 2019. The National Health Service (Existing...

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: On 23 October 2025, the DWP opened a consultation on proposals for ‘Retirement CDC schemes’, a fresh pension design aimed solely at retired members. Under the plans, savers with DC pots could, at retirement, move their funds into a collective pool that pays trustee-run lifetime income, recalibrated each year in line with investment outcomes and the health of the scheme. These Retirement CDC arrangements would sit as sections within Master Trusts or in unconnected multi-employer vehicles. For more detail, see: Decumulation-only CDC schemes, below. For legislative consistency, the Pension Schemes Act 2021 (PSA 2021) uses ‘collective money purchase’ for what are commonly called ‘collective defined contribution’ (CDC) schemes. This Practice Note treats the two labels as interchangeable. Why develop a CDC framework? CDC works by sharing risk across a broad membership, allowing schemes to aim for (though not legally guarantee) a target pension; this relieves employers or trustees of uncapped obligations and spares individuals the burden of turning their pot into a lasting income. Such...

This Q&A proceeds on the basis that the query concerns a tenancy in England. Section 21 notice Within 30 days of receiving a rent deposit, the landlord must satisfy the initial obligations of the tenancy deposit scheme (TDS) by supplying the tenant, and any person who pays the deposit for the tenant (i.e. the ‘relevant person’), with the prescribed details about the TDS, the deposit, and the assured shorthold tenancy (AST) (see section 213(3)–(6) of the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004), as amended, and Practice Note: Tenancy deposit schemes). Non‑compliance may carry potential consequences indeed...

A landlord has 30 days from receiving a rent deposit to satisfy, in full, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) initial duties and obligations. These require supplying the tenant—and any individual who pays the deposit for them (i.e. the ‘relevant person’)—with certain prescribed particulars, including information about the TDS, the deposit, and the assured shorthold tenancy (AST) (see section 213(3)–(6) of the Housing Act 2004 (HA 2004), as amended, and our Practice Note: Tenancy deposit schemes). Non-compliance may have potential consequences. This Q&A proceeds on the basis that the tenancy is in England, and that the rent deposit itself has been properly handled in line with the TDS requirements; accordingly, we have not set out those requirements here in this respect for the avoidance of any doubt...

The nature of pay and wages The heart of employment is payment in exchange for work: an employer has a duty to pay wages whenever the employee is ready, willing and able to perform, and this generally applies even if there is no work available at the time. As Lord Templeman explained in Miles v Wakefield MDC, work and wages are mutually dependent: the employer pays for work, and the worker provides labour for pay. If the employer refuses to pay, the worker need not work; if the worker refuses to work, the employer need not pay. To succeed in a claim for wages, the worker must assert, and be prepared to prove, that he worked or was willing to work The contractual framework must also be taken into account. Different treatment may arise where work is not done because of sickness, injury or another unavoidable impediment, which might be governed by express terms, implied terms, or by custom. For further information, see Practice Note: Pay and wages...