Legal News

Sara Protheroe, the PPF’s chief customer officer, said most payments are on track to finish by March 2025, with the balance to follow a year after. This update follows an initial £9.4m disbursed by PPF’s Fraud Compensation Fund to investors in pension arrangements linked to Norton Motorcycles. Protheroe delivered remarks while giving evidence to the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee, outlining lessons drawn from the Norton pension scandal. She explained that they are advancing swiftly through the queue of scam schemes. She added that, as set out in the strategic plan, the organisation aims to finalise the bulk of cases by March 2025, with the outstanding claims concluded by March 2026......

Drawing on a survey of 50 charities in total, Spence & Partners Ltd reported that thirteen had paused deficit recovery payments, with others likely to follow suit in the coming months as they await the arrival of a new public sector consolidator in due course. Higher yields on long-dated government bonds over the last two years have pushed up funding positions for most UK defined benefit ( DB) schemes. ' While insurance buy-out will still be the right route in many situations, it may suit charities with smaller schemes to wait for a public sector consolidator to launch, and those with stronger balance sheets might choose to keep running their defined benefit schemes to deliver value for the charity and pension scheme members', said Alistair Russell- Smith, head of Spence & Partners’ charity and not-for-profit practice......

Responsible Investment review On 15 March 2024, consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock LLP ( LCP) reported that all nine providers of pension risk transfer deals had set aims to cut fossil fuel exposure within their holdings. However, LCP argued the industry must go further, harnessing its heft as an investment heavyweight to influence policy, regulation and wider market practices to address emissions. The firm has issued its third Responsible Investment review for the market, a report that appears every two years. Back in 2022, just seven insurers had committed to net-zero targets......

Nikhil Rathi informed attendees at the JP Morgan Pensions and Savings Symposium that regulations introduced in 2012, requiring employers to auto‑enrol staff into workplace retirement savings schemes, have profoundly altered the pensions landscape in Britain since then. Rathi noted that although 88% of employees now hold a workplace pension, up from 55% in 2012, many workers have not benefited equally. ‘ We should recognise auto‑enrolment for the success it has been,’ he said. ‘ But sizeable gaps and shortcomings remain.’ The FCA chief added that who benefits from automatic enrolment ‘largely depends on what generation you belong to’......

Some 25% of financial advisers want pension reform to reduce the tax burden New findings from a November 2023 survey of 200 financial advisers by Aegon UK and research consultancy Next Wealth highlight key priorities among respondents, according to the study: 25% back pension reforms to ease the overall tax burden 17% call for a more consistent approach to pension rules such as the lifetime allowance 12% point to the need for simpler tax and pension systems Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said the evidence clearly shows advisers want a future government to ease consumers’ tax burden to better support retirement clients. On 6 March 2024, the government announced a payroll tax cut as part of its election-year spring Budget. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said National Insurance, the payroll tax deducted from workers’ earnings to fund government benefit programmes, would be reduced......

Sean Browes, the senior trustee representative at Dalriada Trustees Ltd ( Dalriada), informed the Work and Pension Committee ( Committee) that the sum constituted a first instalment. He declined to reveal the exact eventual amount to be repaid in total, or the timeframe for doing so. The push for redress comes after the Committee urged a faster route for employees left out of pocket when a company boss siphoned money from a workplace staff pension scheme. The Fraud Compensation Fund ( FCF), run by the Pension Protection Fund, has safeguarded members of qualifying defined benefit pension arrangements since 2005......

The Debenhams Retirement Scheme The Debenhams Retirement Scheme, which moved into the Pension Protection Fund in 2019 following the high street chain’s insolvency, is set to transfer to Clara under the agreement. Members will receive their full pension promises, plus arrears to compensate for any shortfall while the scheme was being assessed by the PPF ‘lifeboat’. Clara, operating a bridge-to-buyout model, remains the only superfund approved by the Pensions Regulator. The transaction represents just the second transfer to a superfund, a newer UK consolidation structure that brings multiple defined benefit schemes together so they can be administered more efficiently......

In this issue: Pensions taxation Funding, surplus and investment Types of workplace pension schemes Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pensions taxation Pensions ( Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2024 published Laid before Parliament on 14 March 2024, the Pensions ( Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/356 ( PALAC Regulations), will, among other changes: amend the Finance Act 2024 on when schemes must report tax due on paid lump sums; clarify how the pension commencement excess lump sum operates; set the amount of overseas transfer allowance available where a member has already used part of their lifetime allowance; and introduce a statutory override for schemes. The PALAC Regulations take effect on 6 April 2024 and extend and apply to the UK. Up to 5 April 2024, a...

What is the background to the consultation? In 2023, the government stepped up efforts to accelerate UK economic growth by mobilising the significant assets sitting within pension funds. There was parallel emphasis on securing better outcomes and value for pension scheme members, alongside promoting consolidation across the pensions market more widely. These priorities shaped the government’s stance and immediate policy direction. Against this setting, a call for evidence was issued in July 2023 on potential approaches for DB schemes. In turn, the government committed to a further consultation to streamline surplus extraction and to consider creating a public sector consolidator. That exercise set the stage for the latest DWP consultation, which is seeking views on the following matters: encouraging investment in productive assets by making surplus extraction more straightforward; and establishing a public consolidator for certain DB pension schemes. What is being proposed and why? Surplus...

Paul Maynard, the Pensions Minister, stated in a letter to the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee ( WPC), released on 6 March 2024, that the government is collaborating with regulators on applying the Privacy and Electronic Communications ( EC Directive) Regulations 2003 ( PECR), SI 2003/2426. Providers of retirement savings schemes worry that these privacy requirements could stop them meeting new draft obligations. The proposals will oblige providers to give savers choices about how they access their retirement benefits, as set out in the rules......

Taskforce on Social Factors On 7 March 2024, TPR stated it expects trustees to adopt fresh guidance issued by the government-led Taskforce on Social Factors, and to follow it in practice. Released the same day by the Department for Work and Pensions, the guidance says trustees must take into account issues such as modern slavery, as well as inclusion and diversity, when they decide how to invest the savings of workers. Established in 2021 by former pensions minister Guy Opperman, the Taskforce brings together representatives from government, regulators and private sector organisations......

Following the Spring Budget, HM Treasury ( HMT) signalled in accompanying papers that, while it remains wedded to the lifetime provider model, it is now 'exploring options'. From November 2023 to January 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) sought views on proposals enabling employees to keep saving into one retirement pot, instead of being auto-enrolled into a new defined contribution ( DC) plan each time they switch employer. The initiative drew pushback across the pensions industry, with many warning the changes could create more difficulties than they resolve. Steve Webb, the former pensions minister and now a partner at Lane Clark & Peacock, suggested Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was 'starting to cool' on the proposal......

Consultation on the statement of strategy On 5 March 2024, TPR opened a consultation on the statement of strategy that trustees must file with their routine valuation papers from 22 September 2024, forming part of how DB scheme funding is planned and overseen. The consultation is set to run until 16 April 2024. Within the refreshed statement, trustees will be required to explain how it intends to handle long‑term liabilities via the investment approach, aiming over time to reach a position where there is minimal reliance on the sponsoring employer. This requirement sits as a core component of TPR’s finalised DB funding code, which has undergone several rounds of refinement since first being revealed in 2020......

In this issue: Spring Budget 2024 The Pensions Regulator Pensions taxation The Pension Protection Fund Investment Scheme governance Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Spring Budget 2024 Key pensions announcements and views from the market In the Spring Budget 2024, delivered on 6 March 2024, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, outlined the government’s central objective: to stimulate growth by funnelling more capital into UK equity markets, improving the UK’s standing as a listing venue, and building on the Mansion House reforms announced in the Autumn Statement 2023. Key pensions measures include: expanding the regulatory remit of the Pensions Regulator ( TPR) and the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) to enable the closure or winding-up of poorly performing defined contribution ( DC) schemes, aligned with the reformed Value for Money (...

On 2 March 2024, Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor of the Exchequer, said a new disclosure regime, set to take effect by 2027, would “focus minds” across the retirement sector. He emphasised this would apply across the market broadly. His comments were part of a clutch of weekend announcements trailing the Spring Budget due on Wednesday 6 March 2024. HM Treasury, also on 2 March 2024, indicated it expects schemes to run regular comparisons with other, larger pension plans, and that it will give regulators authority to intervene and stop underperforming schemes from accepting new business. Specialists caution, however, that these proposals could weaken trustees’ independence when making investment choices intended to serve members’ interests......

Farley (formerly CR) and others v Paymaster (1836) Ltd [2024] EWHC 383 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The court’s move to strike out a large tranche of claims underscores how hard it is to surmount the stringent evidential thresholds in data breach litigation. Claimants must prove tangible loss, and cannot simply lean on inference—no matter how compelling—or on the fact of distress alone. The onus remains with the claimant to establish that an unauthorised third party actually accessed the personal data. Conduct that does not lead to unauthorised access is treated differently by regulators than by the civil courts. For instance, if documents with personal data are mistakenly left on public transport, a regulator might act over security failings, yet a civil claim may falter if the papers were swiftly recovered and not read by...

Employment Judge David Massarella has decided that 9,555 members of the policing professional body are to be included as claimants, as set out in the judgment dated 14 February 2024 and released on 27 February 2024. As a consequence, they stand to gain from a June 2023 tribunal finding that the federation backed the government’s unlawful policy and discriminated against and victimised those members who opposed it. The tribunal recorded in June that the federation—established to champion officers’ interests—ran a campaign against the cohort who contested the policy, depicted them as self-serving to stoke division within the ranks, and circulated 'distorted, misleading and inaccurate' material to discourage colleagues from joining the challenge to the pension scheme. ' In pursuing this policy, the respondent knowingly supported and protected prima facie discrimination', the judge stated......

On 28 February 2024, Pw C noted that proposals recently aired by the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) might unlock sizeable, underused capital within the retirement savings sector. The DWP is considering measures that would permit firms to access the £1.4trn defined benefit ( DB) sector and is also seeking views on so-called surplus extraction. This approach would enable pension schemes to deploy assets exceeding those needed to cover obligations, either to enhance members’ entitlements or to support the sponsoring employer. The government emphasised it intends to allow surplus extraction only where ‘there remains a very high probability that member benefits will be paid in full’......

What is the background consultation on the options for DB pension schemes? As one strand of the government’s push for economic growth under the Mansion House reforms (so called after the Mansion House speech on 10 July 2023, where the Chancellor of the Exchequer unveiled a package of pension measures to enhance member outcomes and strengthen UK capital markets), the DWP issued a call for evidence on 11 July 2023, ‘ Options for defined benefit pension schemes’. It sought to assess whether there is scope to permit greater flexibility in the investment of DB scheme assets so they can work harder for members, employers and the economy (with those assets amounting to about £1.7trn, roughly 75% of UK annual GDP). In particular, the exercise aimed to build an evidence base on ways DB pension schemes could deploy assets more flexibly, while keeping...

In this issue: Funding, surplus and investment Pensions taxation The Pensions Regulator Trustees, governance and administration Daily and weekly news alerts New content Dates for your diary Trackers Funding, surplus and investment Withdrawn and re-laid: draft Occupational Pension Schemes ( Funding and Investment Strategy and Amendment) Regulations 2024 The draft Occupational Pension Schemes ( Funding and Investment Strategy and Amendment) Regulations 2024 were first laid on 29 January 2024, then withdrawn and re-laid on 26 February 2024. The revisions in the re-laid draft (the 2024 Regulations) are intended to ensure sponsoring employers, trustees and scheme managers all have equivalent time to prepare for the added requirements linked to the new funding and investment strategy and the statement of strategy. These updates are set out in regulation 20 of the revised draft, which would amend the...