We wish our readers a Happy New Year.
If you are still catching up on recent pensions news, here is our weekly summary of key legal and regulatory developments relevant to occupational pension schemes that you might have missed, with links to further information.
The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has published a user-friendly factsheet for pension scheme members and other beneficiaries explaining the key issues that arise when a pension has been overpaid. TPO asks that schemes share this information with members, ideally when informing them of an overpayment, or when a member queries or challenges the scheme's attempt to reclaim an overpayment, so that members have a better understanding of this complex area.
On 17 December, the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Committee published its report on the Pension Schemes Bill. The committee does not mince its words. It expresses disappointment that the bill contains nearly as many delegated powers (119) as it does clauses (123), rendering the bill skeletal in nature and meaning that "this bill is in large part a licence for Ministers to make subordinate legislation".
The Pension Schemes Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 18 December 2025. A motion was approved to pass the bill to the House of Lords Grand Committee for review and scrutiny. The committee dates have been scheduled for 12, 14, 19 and 22 January 2026. Members of the Lords have started to put forward amendments for consideration by the Grand Committee. The Grand Committee will then report back to the Lords. Any amendments to the bill that are agreed to by the House of Lords will then be sent back to the House of Commons for consideration.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is consulting on a draft code of practice that will amend the existing collective defined contribution (CDC) code to cover the authorisation and supervision of unconnected multiple employer schemes providing CDC benefits. The consulation closes at midnight on 13 February 2026.
HMRC's Newsletter 176 contains a reminder that the general deadline for submitting a pension scheme return in respect of the tax year 2024/2025 is 31 January 2026. However, if you migrated your scheme onto HMRC's new Managing Pension Schemes service after 31 October 2025, notices to file for tax year 2024/2025 will have a filing dealine of three months from the date of issue. Most schemes that have migrated will be required to submit a scheme return this time. The contents of the scheme return are more detailed than in previous years, so trustees and scheme administrators should liaise on submission of the return as soon as possible if they have not done so already. A penalty of £100 will apply for late filing, with possible daily fines of £60 per day.
The secretary of state for work and pensions has conducted the annual review of automatic enrolment earnings thresholds for 2026-27. The thresholds will be unchanged from 2025-26. The earnings trigger will remain at £10,000, the lower earnings limit will remain at £6,240 and the upper earnings limit will remain at £50,270. The review concludes that "this approach will avoid prejudicing the work of the Pensions Commission and provide stability for employers, individuals and providers".
TPR has published its annual official statistics publication, which provides an overview of the occupational defined benefit (DB) and hybrid scheme landscape in the UK, reporting on scheme status, membership levels and assets under management. Key findings include that the DB and hybrid landscape continues to shrink at an average yearly rate of 3%, the percentage of schemes closed to future accrual has risen from 73% to 74%, the technical provisions (TP) funding level has stayed the same at 118%, while assets and liabilities have both fallen by 10% during 2025, and the percentage of schemes in TP surplus is 82% (up from 80% in 2024).
The chancellor has announced that the spring forecast will be held on 3 March 2026.
Two dashboards webinar recordings are available. TPR's "Are you ready to connect?" webinar was held on 3 December 2025 and the Pensions Dashboards Programme's (PDP) progress update was held on 10 December 2025.
Thank you to those who entered our festive quiz and to all those who sent good wishes to the team. The winner and runners up have been notified. The answers to the quiz are now available if you would like to check how you did.
If you would like specific advice on any of these issues or anything else, please contact a member of our Pensions team.
