Here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes that you might have missed, with links for further information.
The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has issued a progress report confirming that four volunteer participants have connected to the dashboards ecosystem, and are now in the process of connecting pension schemes and providers. A further five volunteer participants are close to connection. PDP is carefully managing each connection so that it can gain insight and refine processes as necessary. PDP confirms that The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) do not currently plan to take action if schemes and providers cannot achieve their “connect by” date in guidance solely due to their dependence on a volunteer participant. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) will now start undertaking dashboards consumer testing with real individuals. This is seen as a crucial part of ensuring that the end-to-end user experience of the service is positive, safe and meets user needs. As the volume of consumer testing increases, schemes may start to receive queries from individuals relating to information seen on dashboards.
According to a report issued by The Pensions Policy Institute (sponsored by TPR), support for defined contribution (DC) members is “underdeveloped” at the decumulation phase, uncertainties around guidance/advice boundaries limit tailored support and data gaps and market fragmentation hinder a market-level understanding of DC savers’ needs. However, the report acknowledges new innovations to help members – such as new products, tools and the greater use of artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at the launch of this report, Patrick Coyne, Interim Director of Policy and Public Affairs at TPR, highlights TPR’s views on DC decumulation, as well as the actions that trustees and pension providers can take ahead of legal requirements on decumulation pathways coming into force.
The government has published a new consultation in relation to the local government pension scheme (LGPS) on the subject of access and fairness. The proposals cover a variety of topics including death benefits, closing the gender pensions gap (where the impact is specifically due to the pension rules, rather than indirectly because of the gender pay gap), reporting and collecting data in relation to people who opt out of the LGPS and improving the operation of the forfeiture rules. The consultation proposes several detailed operational changes that will impact LGPS administrators at an already busy time – in some cases, requiring benefits to be recalculated retrospectively. The government is seeking feedback on whether the proposed changes should be introduced at the same time or staggered (noting that individual LGPS funds will have to bear the cost of administering the changes). Private sector trustees and employers might be interested to note the proposal that all unpaid maternity, adoption or parental leave becomes pensionable (with only the employer contributing), as one means of closing the gender pay gap. A separate consultation on implementing the New Fair Deal policy is also expected this year, as well as the government’s response to the pooling consultation that closed in January 2025.
Our latest #how2dopensions quick guide looks at what trustees need to know about a relatively new insolvency process called a restructuring plan, which employers might seek to use.
During a recent webinar, our labour & employment colleagues received some queries through the chat function, which they have now answered in a blog post.