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.
Several pensions-related regulations have been made. The Pension Schemes Act 2026 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2026 were made on 22 June 2026, and brought section 123 of the Pension Schemes Act 2026 (PSA26) into force on 29 June 2026. This section amends the way that the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is able to set its risk-based levy, making it less problematic when the PPF intends setting the levy at zero, or a minimal amount. The Pensions (Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2026 came into force on 25 June 2026. These make further amendments to primary and secondary legislation relating to the abolition of the lifetime allowance so that the legislation works as it was intended to. The Registered Pension Schemes (Net Pay Arrangements) Regulations 2026 come into force on 14 July 2026. They make tweaks to the existing legislation that was introduced to address the disparity for low earners arising from differences in pension tax relief between individuals saving under net pay arrangements, and those saving under relief at source schemes. The changes are designed to ensure that all affected individuals are in scope for a low earner’s payment representing the amount of tax relief they would have received had they had taxable earnings.
Kim Goodall-Brown, director of defined contribution (DC) and master trust supervision at The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a blog post highlighting the new trustee duties under the PSA26. TPR started a communications campaign last week, targeting schemes likely to be in scope. TPR says that trustees should now assess whether they can meet the higher legislative standards or if members would benefit from consolidation into a scheme providing scale, value and good governance. Employers are expected to engage with trustees on the scheme’s future. TPR’s PSA26 webpage will be populated with secondary legislation, as it emerges.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published Newsletter 182. This includes a notification that HMRC has changed its policy regarding identity verification of persons taking on the role of HMRC scheme administrator for a registered pension scheme. By way of reminder, this is not your third-party administrators, but the person responsible (usually a trustee) for operating HMRC’s managing pension scheme service. If you have not yet migrated your pension scheme over to the managing pension schemes service, it is important that you take action now. This is not something your third-party administrators can do on your behalf. Our blog post provides more information on the steps that trustees should take.
The Pensions Dashboards Programme has issued an update, including the outcome of consultation on daily reporting (which we covered in last week’s newsletter), a response to private sector dashboards proposals, updates to guidance and a blog on how dashboards could boost employee engagement. The next dashboards webinar, “Connection is just the start: are you ready for what’s next?” will be held on Wednesday 8 July at 2:30 p.m.
The Pensions Ombudsman has updated its factsheets relating to ill health pensions, incorrect information about pensions, death benefit lump sums and how a member can complain about their pension.
Have you spotted the PPF’s list of schemes in the PPF and Financial Assistance Scheme that will benefit from the pre-1997 indexation provisions of the Pension Schemes Act 2026?
If you would like specific advice on any of these issues or anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.
