Latest contracting out bulletin issued
24 October 2014
HMRC have published the third edition of their Countdown Bulletin, with 18 months now to go before the abolition of contracting out.
The Bulletin includes updates on a number of topics, including important advice concerning the Scheme Reconciliation Service.
Abolition of 'short service refunds'
24 October 2014
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced that a member of an occupational pension scheme who leaves having completed more than 3 months but less than 2 years’ qualifying service will no longer be entitled to receive a short service refund. The DWP announcement confirms that these refunds will no longer be permitted from October 2015. After that, schemes will only be able to make refunds within the first 30 days of membership. Defined benefit occupational pension schemes and personal pension schemes are not affected.
NAPF: 101 issues obstructing guidance guarantee
27 October 2014
More than 100 issues must be resolved for pension schemes to be able to put the guidance guarantee in place by next April, according to the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF).
Many thanks to Professional pensions for this report:
Speaking to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Pension Schemes Bill, NAPF chief executive Joanne Segars said the list had reduced slightly but there was still a lot of work to be done before April. Trustees' obligations in relation to defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) transfers, as well as what the guidance would offer and how it was branded were just a handful of matters that needed clarity. Segars said: "There is a huge amount of information that we simply don't know and we need to be in place sooner rather than later for trustees and schemes sponsors to make the freedom and choice agenda a success and to make the guidance guarantee a success. "We have a list of 101 known unknowns, to coin a phrase, of issues that need to be clarified, and clarified quickly, for the guidance guarantee to be implemented." Although DB to DC transfers were not a new issue, Segars argued that trustees needed to know what information the regulators would want to see because the freedoms would "potentially open up the issue to a much bigger scale".
Split pension input periods and the annual allowance
30 October 2014
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 401 of 521
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