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:

• TPR issues new online automatic enrolment guide for business advisers
• DWP updates State Pension leaflets
• NAPF, ABI and TUC call for Independent Retirement Savings Commission
• Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes documentation updated
• Trustees of the Olympic Airlines SA Pension and Life Assurance Scheme v Olympic Airlines SA
• PO decisions in relation to Mr Winning
• TPR issues escalating auto-enrolment fines
• PPI publishes Briefing Note 74 – 2015 Election Briefing: Pensions

TPR issues new online automatic enrolment guide for business advisers

TPR recently launched their new online guide to automatic enrolment. It is aimed at business advisers, and was created in response to feedback asking for a simplified process to help small businesses meet their automatic enrolment duties.

DWP updates State Pension leaflets

The DWP has updated its State Pension leaflets, “Your State Pension statement explained” (DWP040 and DWP040B), “Combined Pension Statement: Your State Pension statement explained” (CPS5) and “Combined Pension Statement: Your State Pension estimate explained” (CPS5T). The leaflets are aimed at helping people understand the information in their State Pension statement.

NAPF, ABI and TUC call for Independent Retirement Savings Commission

The NAPF, Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have called for the introduction of an Independent Retirement Savings Commission in a letter to the Financial Times.

In the letter they raise concerns about the risks of developing policy in a piecemeal way: “We believe the next Government should establish a standing Independent Retirement Savings Commission to encourage pension policy designed for the long-term.”

The NAPF also published a report on 30 April 2015, entitled “The case for an Independent Retirement Savings Commission”, which collects contributions from experts and commentators exploring the benefits of an Independent Retirement Savings Commission, and consumer research into how savers feel about the way pensions policy is developed in the UK and the effect this has on their views of pension saving. The report discusses the issues the possible Commission should undertake as well as the practicalities of its creation and operation.

Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes documentation updated

On 30 April 2015, HMRC published updated form APSS251 and accompanying notes, in relation to qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes, to reflect new and existing legislation and to align with their published guidance.

Trustees of the Olympic Airlines SA Pension and Life Assurance Scheme v Olympic Airlines SA

Olympic Airlines (“OA”), a Greek company, went into liquidation in 2009.  OA’s UK operation had a DB scheme (the “Scheme”) with a section 75 debt in excess of £15 million.

The PPF provides compensation to members of eligible DB pension schemes, when there is a “qualifying insolvency event” in relation to the employer, and where there are insufficient assets in the pension scheme to cover the PPF level of compensation.  The Scheme’s trustees applied for a UK court order for the winding up of OA so that this would be the “qualifying insolvency event” for the purposes of PPF entry.

The High Court made the winding up order but this was overruled by the Court of Appeal (“CA”).

The case was appealed to the Supreme Court.  Please click here for a summary of the decision.

PO decisions in relation to Mr Winning

Last week we noted that the PO had published its determinations in relation to two complaints brought by Mr Winning (against Legal & General Assurance Society Limited (PO-5799) and against Scottish Widows (PO-5930)) which related to “pension liberation” or “pension scams”.  Summaries are now available on our Pensions Wiki.

TPR issues escalating auto-enrolment fines

TPR has confirmed, in its Automatic enrolment Compliance and enforcement Quarterly bulletin (for the first quarter of 2015), that it has issued four escalating fines to employers as a result of their failure to comply with their auto-enrolment duties. According to figures from TPR, 198 companies were issued with fixed penalty notices of £400 in the first quarter of 2015, compared with 166 in the same period last year.

PPI publishes Briefing Note 74 – 2015 Election Briefing: Pensions

The PPI has published a new Briefing Note highlighting the pensions policy positions of the main political parties, in order to give some indication of how different parties might affect the future direction of pensions policy.