Legal News

Original news Ms Y ( CAS-87387- G9Y9)—4 April 2025 Summary The Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has partly upheld a complaint relating to a pension sharing order. There was no obligation on the Scheme to alert the parties to a statutory time limit for implementing a pension sharing order. Nevertheless, the Scheme’s failure to recognise that the divorce was subject to Scots law—which differs from English law in divorce cases—constituted maladministration, and the complainant was awarded compensation for significant distress and inconvenience. This decision highlights the need for pension schemes to have appropriate procedures for any Scottish members. What were the facts? Ms Y’s spouse ( Mr Z) was a member of the Friends Provident Pension Scheme (the Scheme). Ms Y and Mr Z divorced and their divorce was governed by Scots law. Under Scots pensions legislation......

Original news Mrs E and Mr R ( CAS-72134- V5K7 and CAS-72135- Q7V1)—25 April 2025 Summary The Pensions Ombudsman has upheld a complaint about the distribution of death benefits under a pension scheme. The trustee failed to identify all potential beneficiaries in line with the scheme rules, giving excessive weight to the definition of dependant and sidelining the separate meanings of spouse and relatives. Consequently, the decision was returned to the trustee for reconsideration. This outcome serves as a reminder that pension scheme trustees must precisely identify and categorise every potential recipient of death benefits. What were the facts? Mr F was a member of the Thyssenkrupp Elevator UK Pension Plan (the Scheme). Following Mr F’s death, he was survived by, among others, Mrs E, Ms D and his three children ( Mr L, Mr N and Mr R)......

Morningstar DBRS, in a note to investors, indicated that although it does not anticipate ‘systemic’ dangers, the shift from defined benefit ( DB) to defined contribution ( DC) pensions could still generate a broader ripple across markets. The Netherlands is set to move from arrangements that guarantee retirees an income based on final or career‑average earnings to a model where both employees and employers make monthly contributions into a savings pot. This transition is expected to bring about a major change in Dutch pension funds’ investment approach—moving away from dependable long‑dated government bonds towards higher‑return equity markets. Morningstar DBRS characterised the reform as one of Europe’s most significant pension revamps......

In this issue: Pension Schemes Bill Autumn Budget Death benefits Pensions fraud Dates for your diary Trackers Pension Schemes Bill Public Bill Committee has begun voting on lodged amendments. The Public Bill Committee is presently reviewing changes to the Pension Schemes Bill that have been put forward by the government and others......

Original news Mr T ( CAS-64304- R5R1)—14 April 2025 Summary The Pensions Ombudsman dismissed a complaint concerning the distribution of death benefits from a pension scheme. It concluded the scheme administrator’s decision was reasonable, neither irrational nor perverse. The complainant was not named in a supposed will—which was invalid as it lacked witnesses—and was the sole beneficiary of the late member’s estate. Before deciding, the administrator carried out extensive enquiries. This outcome serves as a reminder that trustees and administrators of pension schemes should undertake appropriate enquiries when determining death benefit payments. What were the facts? Mr S was a member of the AJ Bell You Invest Self invested Personal Pension Plan (the Scheme). Following his death, he was survived by, among others, Mr T. Mr T had entered into a civil partnership with Mr S......

XPS Group: £50bn funding gains from rising long-dated government bond yields XPS Group reported that higher yields on long-dated government bonds have generated around £50bn of funding improvements for retirement savings plans in 2024. This update lands as Parliament continues to examine the Pension Schemes Bill this week, which contains reforms permitting businesses to take surpluses from defined benefit plans once they pass a specified threshold. Jill Fletcher, senior consultant at XPS Group, noted that while many schemes still plan to secure benefits through buy-in or buy-out routes, they will nevertheless have to decide how any surplus ought to be deployed......

LCP warned on 8 September 2025 The firm cautioned that 'low-hanging fruit' budget options slated for 26 November 2025—curbing pension tax relief and altering rules on accessing retirement pots—carry serious political and economic risks. Speculation suggests the Labour government could remove higher rates of tax relief. Some organisations are also urging further tax reforms, such as abolishing the right to take 25% of a pension as a tax-free lump sum. Steve Webb, ex-pensions minister and now an LCP consultant, argued against such moves. LCP stressed that such changes could backfire politically and economically. and prove short-sighted overall too. As he put it, ' Raiding pension tax relief may look superficially attractive for a cash-strapped chancellor', he......

Farley and others v Paymaster (1836) Ltd (trading as Equiniti) ( Information Commissioner intervening) [2025] EWCA Civ 1117 What are the practical implications of this case? The court’s confirmation that unlawful processing, by itself, can found a duty to compensate for ensuing damage emphasises the need for controllers to maintain rigorous UK data protection compliance that is well-documented and to record those measures, including clear documentation of steps taken and decisions taken. It also serves as a useful prompt that ‘processing’ spans collection, storage and organisation of personal data, and that even small departures from handling protocols may attract liability. Organisations should reassess incident response frameworks so that appropriate standards for logging, inquiry and remediation also apply to low-level events (for example, misdirected emails), and keep contemporaneous records of investigations and outcomes. Documenting investigation and remediation for seemingly minor mishaps can therefore be...

High Court Master Matthew Marsh stated he did not consider himself able to confirm as final the interim third‑party debt orders aimed at the personal pensions of Ratna Singh, former Chief Executive of Integrated Health Partners Ltd, and Oliver Bernath, a former director, notwithstanding what he described as compelling grounds. The claimants had attempted to oblige the defendants to withdraw pension monies so a liability would crystallise, capable of enforcement through third‑party debt orders. According to Judge Marsh, Singh and Bernath have acted in an abusive manner since being ordered to pay investors Ilya Zubarev and Serg Bell about US$1.6m in December 2022. The pair, the judge observed, have gone out of their way to cause the claimants added difficulty and cost. Even so, Judge Marsh refused to render the interim orders final. His reasoning was that, at the time of the...

In this issue: Pension Schemes Bill The Pensions Regulator The Pensions Ombudsman Pensions dashboards Members and benefits Dates for your diary Trackers Pension Schemes Bill Amendments to Pension Schemes Bill published, including new Virgin Media remedy provisions A comprehensive schedule of suggested changes to the Pension Schemes Bill has been issued and is now under scrutiny at the Public Bill Committee in the House of Commons, where the clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill commenced on 2 September 2025. The tabled revisions span a wide array of adjustments designed to sharpen the Bill’s remit, define accountabilities more clearly, and enhance how it operates in practice. Altogether, there are more than 240 amendments and 30 new clauses ( NC1 to NC30), among them measures responding to the Court of Appeal’s ruling in the Virgin Media litigation, which are proposed for inclusion as a new Chapter 1 within Part 4 of the Bill. In Virgin Media v NTL...

Isio, the pensions consultancy and investment adviser, reported that 12 defined contribution master trusts it oversees had reduced their exposure to US shares during the first and second quarters of 2025. These master trusts reshaped their investments after the American president announced swingeing trade tariffs on 2 April 2025, sparking a short-lived sell-off in US equities. A baseline tariff of 10% covered almost all countries shipping goods to the US, with markedly higher rates for regions such as China and the EU. The announcement jolted US equity markets, wiping US$2.5trn off Wall Street trading on 3 April 2025......

At an oral session of the Committee, Charlotte Clark CBE, Director of Cross-cutting Policy and Strategy at the FCA, said that secondary legislation is required to give greater clarity on the steps trustees must take to justify declining a mandated investment, as well as on regulatory rules that would need very careful design. The Pension Schemes Bill provides an exemption that permits trustees to refuse mandated investments if they consider this not in members’ interests, but Clark cautioned that this would be a difficult judgement for trustees and scheme managers, and just as challenging for regulators to evaluate thoroughly. She said the extent of that process would be set out in secondary legislation, and that it must spell out what the process involves. It is going to be a demanding assessment for the trustees or scheme manager, and then for the...

According to the APPT, at the very least there should be a statutory funding assessment and ultimate decision-making authority for managers of retirement savings schemes, as a minimum requirement. The association set out its view in response to a consultation on the Pension Schemes Bill, a landmark law for the industry, formally during the consultation process. On 1 September 2025 the Bill was sent to the parliamentary Public Bill Committee ( PBC), which examines the small print of particular legislation. A fiercely debated element proposes that employers with comfortably funded defined benefit pensions could more readily ‘extract’ surplus assets that have accumulated beyond the amounts required to meet members’ benefits. The government believes such steps could help to stimulate economic growth......

Virgin Media issue On 1 September 2025, Pensions Minister Torsten Bell put forward a package of amendments to the Pension Schemes Bill, among other measures featuring a long-awaited remedy to the so-called Virgin Media problem. A July 2024 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees II Ltd and others [2024] EWCA Civ 843 created a precedent with potentially far-reaching consequences for former contracted-out, salary-related occupational pension schemes. The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision, threw out the employer’s appeal and agreed with the High Court that, in the absence of actuarial confirmation, every modification to benefits within contracted-out salary-related occupational pension schemes was invalid......

On 27 August 2025, Cartwright Pension Trusts warned that pension schemes cannot sidestep the fallout from overlooking bitcoin treasury companies. The rise of these publicly listed firms, which raise capital to acquire and retain cryptocurrency, marks a change in how businesses view long-term value, the firm said. Sam Roberts, director of investment consulting, stressed they are not advocating that every scheme begin buying bitcoin. However, Roberts added, trustees and sponsors must grasp the implications of this seismic monetary shift for their particular circumstances......

What are the practical implications of this case? There are three areas of broader relevance, each connected to one of the five tests for issuing a CN under Pe A 2004, s 38 (outlined below): As to the ‘material detriment test’, where (as here) the scheme remains in operation and the employer continues to trade and support it, it may seem challenging to show that a step has adversely affected the likelihood of the scheme delivering promised benefits. Surely any negative funding effect could be rectified by future employer contributions, enabling benefits to be paid? The UT held otherwise, stating the test involves qualitative as well as quantitative evaluation, and observing that the cash drawn from the employer’s finance facility equated to about one-third of its total net assets at the time. That, together with the scheme’s significant deficit, meant the act ‘greatly...

Trafalgar House On 27 August 2025, Trafalgar House, an external pensions administrator, published guidance detailing how robust trustee oversight ought to operate, prompted by the National Cyber Security Centre’s alerts about ongoing nationwide cyber threats. Trustees hold, run and protect members’ pension scheme assets. Outsourced administrators, such as Trafalgar House, oversee the scheme’s routine administration and operations......

According to Lynn Wassell, chief executive at The Donaldson Trust, overly technical and dense jargon often causes confusion and can discourage participation among people who are neurodiverse. Pensions are intricate, and for neurodivergent individuals this difficulty increases when confronted with abstract wording, she noted in an SPP report dated 26 August 2025. ' Favour clear wording and divide content into bite-sized, manageable stages,' Wassell advised. ' Swap long brochures for concise, straightforward, easy-to-follow, simple-to-navigate, accessible, practical guides that allow......

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...

The SPP stated it could not back this fresh authority, one of the scarce elements of the Pension Schemes Bill it opposes. Under the Bill, ministers could require pension funds to allocate a specified share to UK investments if voluntary pledges are not honoured. This authority would be kept in abeyance rather than switched on at once, something commentators have compared to a ‘sword of Damocles’ suspended above the pensions landscape......