7 days

7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.

In this 7 Days

• PPF publishes statement on recent comments about expanding its role
• Developments in implementing the McCloud remedy
• PASA publishes update on AVCs for pensions dashboards
• PASA announces upcoming data publications
• PDP publishes FAQ newsletters online

PPF publishes statement on recent comments about expanding its role

On 30 May 2023, the PPF published a statement on its future role, following “growing debate” in the industry, including a recent report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change on the future of DB schemes in the UK.  This interest follows on from a departmental review of the PPF published in December 2022, which included a recommendation that the DWP and the PPF explore whether it is feasible for the PPF’s skills and capabilities to be used in other ways for public benefit, such as acting as a consolidator for schemes which are not attractive to commercial consolidators.

The PPF welcomes “the chance to work with government and the wider industry to explore the various options”, while reassuring current members that “delivering the best outcomes” for them remains its priority. Any potential future expansion of the PPF’s role is likely to require legislative change.

Developments in implementing the McCloud remedy

As part of its continued work to implement the McCloud remedy, on 30 May 2023 the Government published a further consultation on implementing the remedy in the LGPS, seeking views on supplementary issues and draft regulations. Last month, HMRC opened a technical consultation on further tax changes, and the Ministry of Justice published the response to its consultation on regulations to implement the remedy for affected judges.

The deadline for the retrospective part of the remedy to take effect is 1 October 2023.

PASA publishes update on AVCs for pensions dashboards

On 5 June 2023, PASA published an update on co-ordinating AVC information for pensions dashboards, setting out three potential options for making AVC data available to dashboards. These options will form part of PASA’s industry good practice guidance on value data, which it expects to publish on 8 June 2023.

PASA also intends to issue a questionnaire to AVC providers to understand which of the options they will support. If providers agree, PASA will publish their responses “with a view to reducing the number of queries they receive from schemes”.

PASA announces upcoming data publications

On 31 May 2023, PASA published an update from its Data Working Group on upcoming publications. The group expects to publish several pieces of guidance during 2023 on various data topics, including data for GMP conversion and data quality for DC schemes.

The group is also working with TPR to look at how PASA can “help the pensions industry to get the most out of data scoring” (see TPR’s guidance on record-keeping for information about data scoring).

PDP publishes FAQ newsletters online

The PDP has made its FAQ newsletters available to view on its website. The newsletters aim to answer commonly asked questions about dashboards and the PDP. Topics recently covered include PASA’s guidance on developing an approach to data matching, and the role of the identity service.