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Fire Brigade Union and British Medical Association to fight McCloud costs Published: 8 July 2022 Emailed: 13 July 2022
The Fire Brigade Union (FBU) and British Medical Association (BMA) can move forward with plans to oppose the cost of McCloud remedies being passed onto scheme members.
The McCloud judgement followed the 2015 public sector pension scheme reforms that saw indirect age discrimination as a result of the changes. The remedies proposed will see members given a choice as to which scheme they would like service between April 2015 and March 2022 to count for. HM Treasury has estimated the cost of this remedy, without considering the administration costs, would be around £17 billion. Currently the costs will rest with members of the scheme, something that the FBU and BMA are fighting to oppose. The costs are to be managed with a cost cap mechanism, but critics are complaining that this method of coving the costs also constitutes age discrimination.
With the remedy being introduced to fix the result of age discrimination, it can be expected that the government will fight hard to ensure that the remedy is not judged to have introduced further discrimination.
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Guy Opperman returns as pensions minister Published: 11 July 2022 Emailed: 13 July 2022
A day after resigning, Guy Opperman has returned to the Department of Work and Pensions as pensions minister. His post on Twitter says he has “ agreed to help DWP navigate the next few weeks, while we decide the appointment of a new Prime Minister ” . With many important reforms, projects and consultations currently underway, it is important the pensions industry retains some consistency. Opperman said “ [with] Superfunds, Defined Benefit issues, an outstanding ESG consultation, ongoing correction exercises, and 3-4 pending Private Members Bills means that when the Chief Whip asked me to help… I agreed ”
On 7 July 2022, Opperman resigned as Pensions minister along with over 50 other MP in government roles. A number of new appointments have been made.
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Fraudulent duo jailed after clients lost over £20 million from pension funds Published: 22 July 2022 Emailed: 27 July 2022
Mark Kelly and Rikki Nicholls have been sentenced to six years imprisonment for conspiracy to gain access to the pension funds of their victims and money laundering.
The duo set up a scheme named PCD wealth and pension management in 2007 and convinced their victims to transfer their pensions to investment funds.
Their fraudulent activity included leaving parts of application forms blank so that they could complete them themselves.
Once they had control of the funds, they used them to invest in risky investments, and extracted around 10% of funds in unauthorised commission payments.
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