Policy News Journal - 2017-18

 Introducing ways to encourage employees to take up higher levels of employer matching contributions  Increasing minimum contribution levels  Removing age bands for pension provision  Reviewing fee cap levels  Extending the standards to assess schemes approaches to corporate stewardship and environmental, social and governance issues  Improving board performance through regular external assessment of trustee performance  Extending the PQM Ready standards to cover Group Personal Pensions (GPPs)

The new standards are set to be released prior to the end of 2017.

Interested parties are invited to respond before the consultation closes on 4 August 2017.

PQM are holding a series of round tables and face to face meetings to further explore the areas covered in the consultation. Information on these will be available via the website , Twitter and LinkedIn .

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Shake-up of pensions tax relief off the table, for now 18 July 2017

Although a 'fundamental' shake-up of pensions tax relief has recently been ruled out by the government, experts predict changes to lifetime and annual allowances.

The Financial Times has reported that although a 'fundamental' shake-up of pensions tax relief has been ruled out by the government, experts are warning pension savers to expect 'more slicing and dicing' of lifetime and annual allowances instead. Major changes, which would likely have seen tax relief on contributions scrapped for higher earners, have been ruled out by the government for the time being. Tax relief on pension contributions is currently pegged to the saver’s marginal rate of income tax. So top-rate taxpayers receive 45 per cent tax relief on their contributions, higher earners receive 40 per cent, and basic rate payers 20 per cent. Even non-taxpayers are entitled to claim basic rate relief on contributions. David Gauke, the newly installed secretary of state for work and pensions, said that he did not see “ a particular consensus emerging” ,for an overhaul of retirement savings incentives. He said, “I wouldn’t see any fundamental changes in the near future. The idea of reforming pensions tax relief in the previous parliament was somewhat daunting and recent events haven’t changed that.” However, Mr Gauke indicated that major reforms were not completely off the table. He was a minister in the Treasury in 2015 when former chancellor George Osborne floated radical proposals which could have resulted in the loss of upfront pensions tax relief for higher earners in an attempt to reduce the £21bn annual cost of tax relief for individual savers.