Welcome to the April 2019 edition of Pensions Round-Up which provides an overview of developments in pensions legislation and regulatory guidance.
In this edition we look at key developments from April 2019 including the following:
- The Pensions Regulator: a press release concerning penalties issued in relation to non-compliant chair's statements.
- Department for Work and Pensions: the publication of guidance in relation to the GMP conversion legislation; the response to a January 2019 consultation and the final form of regulations in relation to pensions and age discrimination; and the Government response to the consultation on pensions dashboards.
- HMRC: the publication of HMRC's latest pension schemes newsletter; and updated statistics about flexible payments.
- Pension Protection Fund: an update on the PPF's work to implement a 2018 CJEU judgment about PPF compensation; and the PPF's Strategic Plan for 2019/22 and its Business Plan for 2019/20.
- The Pensions Ombudsman: the publication of a factsheet relating to the question of whether the Ombudsman is a competent court for the purposes of a statutory provision about recovery of overpayments.
- On the Horizon: a timeline of some of the key future developments in pensions to help employers and trustees plan ahead.
In April 2015 a requirement was introduced for trustees of schemes which provide money purchase benefits (subject to some exceptions) to prepare an annual statement regarding governance signed by the chair. The legislation also states that where trustees have indicated that they have failed to prepare a compliant statement or the Regulator is of the opinion that they have failed to do so, the Regulator must impose a financial penalty of at least £500 but no more than £2,000. The Regulator’s quarterly compliance and enforcement bulletins report on the number of penalties issued in relation to breaches of the requirements for a chair’s statement.
