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.
Fortunately, there was nothing specifically pensions-related in the chancellor’s spring forecast.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published pension schemes newsletter 178. This includes a reminder that the normal minimum pension age (NMPA) is scheduled to increase from age 55 to age 57 from 6 April 2028. HMRC notes that work on transitional regulations to support the change to NMPA is ongoing. If trustees have not done so already, they should check the rules of their own scheme to see whether the NMPA will apply automatically, or whether members will have a protected pension age of less than 57.
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has confirmed in a press release that it will not charge a PPF levy for the 2026-2027 year for the circa 5,000 conventional defined benefit (DB) pension schemes that are protected by the PPF. The PPF will still charge a risk-based levy in respect of alternative covenant schemes, which it says will be proportionate.
Patrick Coyne, Director of Strategy and Communications at The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a blog post on the need to understand pension savers when designing guided retirement solutions. He says that career breaks are “common, predictable and economically significant”, and could be factored in to achieve better saver outcomes.
The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has issued a press release announcing part 1 of a new four-part trustee-administrator life-cycle series. The guidance will reflect the stages of the trustee-administrator relationship, from appointing a new administrator through to managing difficulties with the relationship. PASA has also published the final instalment of its guidance on delivering effective digital transformation.
The Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) has published a six page report that examines how covenant assessment is evolving under TPR’s new DB Funding Code, as well as dispelling a number of persistent myths along the way.
We are delighted to welcome pensions partner Gemma Hanley back to our team. Gemma was previously head of pensions at Eversheds Sutherland in Leeds.
Are you ready to migrate? Not to some warmer weather, but onto HMRC’s Managing Pension Schemes (MPS) service. The migration process itself is something that the person nominated as the “Scheme Administrator” must undertake. The Scheme Administrator is usually one or more pension trustees. It is not the actual scheme administrator, whom HMRC calls a “Scheme Practitioner”. If you are not sure whether your scheme has migrated onto the MPS service, this blog post will help you to get started.
Last but not least, our Spring Hot Topics in Pensions contains our top 10 items for your trustee and corporate pensions agenda. We promise you a nostalgic read.
If you would like specific advice on any of these issues or anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.
