Pensions Weekly Update – 13 April 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.

A number of industry bodies have published their responses to consultations issued by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Financial Conduct Authority on pensions dashboards. Industry consensus is that the staging dates for connecting with dashboards are ambitious for both occupational pension schemes and personal pension scheme providers and a number of easements and clarifications are proposed. In the meantime, trustees can check their scheme’s staging date in schedule 2 of the draft regulations that the DWP intends to put before parliament later this year.
HM Treasury has confirmed that the first top-up payments for low earning members of schemes using net-pay arrangements will be made by 2026/27 in respect of contributions made in the tax year 2024/25. “Complex” IT changes first need to be implemented.
The DWP has published its pension and benefit rates for 2022/2023. As previously confirmed in parliament, the full rate of state pension is £185.15 per week.
Watch out for an industry campaign to boost the nation's understanding and engagement with their pensions. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association and the Association of British Insurers will lead the campaign to support over 30 million pension savers in Autumn/Winter 2022. The campaign will include messages around the adequacy of retirement savings and the importance of updating pension schemes with changes of contact details and it will also help to pave the way for the introduction of pensions dashboards.

If you would like specific advice on any of these issues, or on anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.