Consultation Report : a Response from the Pensions Regulator PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pension trusts
Languages : en
Pages : 13

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Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102951219
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Some 20 million people in England and Wales have private sector work-based pension schemes. The Pensions Regulator was established in April 2005 to regulate these schemes, replacing the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra), with the statutory objectives to protect members' benefits, to promote improved governance of such schemes, and to reduce the risk of compensation being paid out by the Pension Protection Fund. This NAO report examines the regulatory approach taken and whether this addresses the key risks, given that any conclusions on the effectiveness of pensions regulation must be set in the long term context rather than based on shorter term fluctuations. Findings include that the Pensions Regulator has made good progress in establishing a sound risk-based approach to regulation, with clear links between its statutory objectives and its operational approach. As the regulator matures, it has the scope for a presumption of further transparency in its approach, and is taking steps to increase the information it makes available to the pensions sector. The report sets out a number of recommendations for further progress, bearing in mind that risks in the pensions environment can change quickly.

Author: International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 118

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The UK economy is approaching a soft landing, following a mild technical recession in 2023. A modest recovery is projected, with 0.7 percent growth in 2024, strengthening to 1.5 percent in 2025. Inflation has fallen rapidly from double digit levels last year in the context of easing energy prices and tight policies. Assuming wage and services inflation continue to moderate from their current elevated levels, inflation should return durably to target in the first half of 2025. The medium-term outlook is affected by significant public spending pressures, notably in healthcare, and the downshift in labor productivity growth post-GFC, exacerbated by recent adverse shocks (Brexit, COVID, energy price surge). Risks to the outlook are balanced. A general election is scheduled on July 4.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215042972
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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The Government established NEST as a low-cost pension scheme to help deliver the auto-enrolment programme and to address a market failure in the pensions industry which meant that many employers and employees were unable to access low-cost, good quality pension provision. However, the Committee believes that certain restrictions placed on NEST will create complexity for employers and will disadvantage some employees. The Committee's report recommends that, if state aid rules allow, the Government should remove the following restrictions: the cap on the annual contributions an individual can make to a NEST scheme; and the ban on individuals transferring existing pension pots into NEST. The Committee further urges the Government to proceed with its plans for State Pension reform, introducing a flat-rate State Pension and reducing the level of means-testing without delay. The report also highlights the difficulties and complexity employers and employees currently face in comparing the fees and charges applied by pension providers and recommends that, from 2013 onwards, if some auto-enrolment schemes still have hidden charges, or charges that represent poor value for money, the Government should use its powers to intervene. Auto-enrolment will impose new costs and may be particularly challenging for small employers however the Committee considers that the Government has taken appropriate steps to minimise the impact on businesses through its gradual and flexible approach ("staging and phasing") to implementation. Exempting small employers would create significant complexity, as well as excluding many employees from the benefits of workplace pension saving

Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0101712227
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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The Government has published this response to the Select Committee's report on Personal Account pensions alongside the results of the wider consultation on its White Paper. It welcomes the Committees' reports as extremely constructive in the development of the Personal Accounts policy and looks forward to that continuing when the policy moves into the next phase with the new Delivery Authority.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215514684
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
This fifteenth report from Committee of Public Accounts, in the 2007-08 session examines "The Pensions Regulator: progress in establishing its new regulatory arrangements" (HCP 122, ISBN 9780215514684). An earlier report from the NAO is also available, see (HCP 1035, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102951219). Some 4 million people are still active contributors to work-based pension schemes (final salary schemes), with approximately some 20 million people having at some point contributed to such schemes with the value of the managed funds exceeding £700 billion. The Pensions Regulator (TPR), established in 2005, took over regulatory responsibility for such schemes. The Committee states that the TPR has acted to put the regulation of such schemes on a firmer footing, taking greater account of risk and possesses stronger powers to obtain information and intervene to protect members' benefits. The Committee also states though that the TPR has made a slower start in the regulation of money purchase schemes with room for improvement in the standards of scheme governance and communication with members. Further work is also required to improve the information held by the TPR about schemes and make use of that information to effectively regulate individual schemes.

Author: Sinéad Agnew
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1509922717
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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State pensions are the largest item in the UK social security budget, costing £96.7 billion in 2017/18. In the same year, 45.6 million people were members of UK occupational pension schemes (out of a total population of 66.4 million) and the total amount saved into workplace schemes in 2018 was £90.4 billion. A consequence of the pensions sector's large size has been that pensions law and social security law have become increasingly specialised areas of practice. Yet despite their social and economic importance and the fascinating legal issues they generate, pensions have not been the subject of sustained academic attention. This book starts to fill this gap by initiating a dialogue between practitioners and scholars working on pensions law and policy, groups who have much to learn from one another.

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215054128
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101795425
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Current policy is that new duties will be staged in between 2012 and 2016, requiring all employers to designate a pension scheme into which all of their employees, aged between 22 and state pension age, should be automatically enrolled, so long as they are earning above an annual earnings threshold (the Pensions Act 2008 sets this at £5,035, equivalent to £5,732 in today's terms). Upon automatic enrolment, a minimum of eight per cent of earnings within a band would be contributed to the pension, with at least three per cent coming from the employer. This policy is designed to maximise private pension saving by individuals without imposing compulsion. The right to opt out will remain. This review looks at the scope of automatic enrolment and whether a new national pension scheme (National Employment Savings Trust or NEST) needs to be put in place for it to work. One of the most significant recommendations that it makes is that people should only be automatically enrolled once they reach the income tax threshold (which will increase to £7.475 in 2011) but that contributions should be on earnings in excess of the National Insurance earnings threshold (£5,715 in today's prices). There should be no changes to age thresholds and automatic enrolment duties should apply to all employers, regardless of size, as now. Employers should be given three months before auto-enrolment to ease the burden on companies. If staff choose to enrol before the three month period then companies will have to make contributions

Author: Great Britain: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102937343
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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This report sets out the results of the Ombudsman's investigation into over 200 complaints about the security of final salary occupational pension schemes and alleged delays in the winding-up of certain such schemes, and the involvement of public bodies in this matter. Chapter 1 explains the Ombudsman's role and jurisdiction and the background to the investigation. Chapter 2 details the complaints, and the Government's initial response; chapter 3 sets out the results of further enquiries to help understand the context of the complaints. The fourth chapter provides the evidence that the investigation has disclosed through consideration of departmental files, official publications and other documentary sources. Chapters 5 and 6 contain the findings and the recommendations. The seventh chapter gives the Ombudsman's assessment of the Government response (appendix D) to the report, and the final chapter is the Ombudsman's conclusion. The Ombudsman makes three findings of maladministration by public bodies: (i) official information about the security that members of final salary schemes could expect from the minimum funding requirement (MFR) was sometimes inaccurate, often incomplete, largely inconsistent and therefore potentially misleading; (ii) the response by DWP to the actuarial profession's recommendation that disclosure should be made to pension scheme members of the risks of wind-up and the risks to accrued pension rights; (iii) the decision in 2002 by DWP to approve a change to the MFR basis. This maladministration was a significant contributory factor in the creation of the financial losses suffered by individuals, amounting to injustice. Recommendations include restoration of the core pension and non-core benefits and some consolatory payments to those fully covered by the recommendations, an apology to scheme trustees for the effects of the maladministration, and a review with the pensions industry to improve the time taken to wind up schemes. The Government, however, is minded not to comply with all of the recommendations, and so the Ombudsman reports to both Houses of Parliament that she has identified injustice caused by maladministration which the Government does not propose to remedy.