Pensions Weekly Update – 16 February 2022

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Here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes, which you might have missed, with links for further information.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a consultation setting out its proposed rules requiring FCA regulated pension providers to supply information about personal and stakeholder pension schemes to pensions dashboards. It is proposed that most providers of personal and stakeholder pension schemes will be required to connect with the dashboard in the three months leading up to the implementation deadline of 30 June 2023 (the same timescales that apply to large master trusts). The FCA consultation runs broadly in parallel with the Department for Work and Pensions consultation affecting trust-based schemes, which we covered in a previous update. In our latest blog, partner Kirsty Bartlett gives her initial views on dashboard compliance and the issues facing trustees in the coming months.
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is responsible for producing technical actuarial standards in the UK, including the methods and assumptions for statutory money purchase illustrations. The FRC has issued a consultation and an exposure draft. As part of its current review, the FRC seeks to set consistent standards for the money purchase calculations that will be displayed on pensions dashboards, as discrepancies would be confusing for pension savers. It is proposed that the new standards will take effect from 1 October 2023.
As part of the government's review of the state pension age, which is required under the Pensions Act 2014, Baroness Neville-Rolfe DBE CMG has been appointed to prepare an independent report making recommendations to the government on what metrics should be taken into account when setting the state pension age. She has launched a call for evidence, which includes consideration of questions such as how to achieve intergenerational fairness, how job type has changed over the years affecting when people take retirement, how to achieve the most sustainable and affordable way of managing the cost of state pension in the long term and what factors other countries take into account when setting state pension age.
Our pensions webinar on Thursday will address some of the practical problems that trustees and administering authorities face when challenged on their environmental, social and governance policies. It is not too late to register for this event.