January 2024
31Jan

U.K. looks to reprioritize investment flexibility in pension fund legislation

The U.K. government is amending proposed legislation to ensure defined benefit plans do not become overly risk averse, following a consultation review that was published online. DB plans in the U.K. will be able to take more investment risk when supported by sponsoring employers, according to the government's final position on the long-running development of new legislation for pension plans. "It was never (the U.K. government's) intention to bear down on risk-taking across the board. Rather, it was to make funding...

January 31, 2024
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30Jan

UK. DWP confirms final DB funding regulations

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published the final Occupational Pension Schemes (Funding and Investment Strategy and Amendment) Regulations 2024, which are set to come into force from April 2024. The final regulations set out the requirements for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes when determining their funding and investment strategy and statement of strategy, and will apply to scheme valuations from September 2024. Industry experts previously raised concerns over a potential mismatch between the DB regulations and The Pensions...

January 30, 2024
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29Jan

UK. Privately educated adults ‘more likely to have learned about pensions at school’

People who attended a private school are more likely to say they learned about pensions at school (20%) than those who were state-educated (6%), a survey has indicated. More than two-fifths (42%) of privately educated 35 to 44-year-olds said they reviewed or reassessed their pension pot at least once a year, compared with less than a fifth (17%) of state school-educated peers of the same age. Privately educated people were also more likely to hold private pensions outside of employment-linked pensions (40%),...

January 29, 2024
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25Jan

Savers at risk from UK’s pension ‘pot for life’ plan, industry leaders warn

Critics say government proposal for single, career-long retirement funds could leave individuals worse off A proposed shake-up of the UK’s pension market to give millions of workers the right to choose a retirement “pot for life” risks leaving savers worse off, industry leaders and unions have warned. In last year’s Autumn Statement economic plan, the government issued a call for evidence on a “lifetime provider” model, which would allow consumers to stick with one pension pot throughout their career. Currently employers are...

January 25, 2024
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24Jan

UK pension funds turn to renewable energy investment

UK pension funds and insurers are keen to increase allocations to renewable energy in the coming years, according to new research. A survey by AlphaReal, a specialist real assets manager, found that a majority of pension funds and insurers planned to increase their allocation to renewable energy in the next year. The survey, which included institutions with a combined £360bn in assets under management, found that 90% of respondents planned to increase their allocation to renewables, with the remaining 10% open...

January 24, 2024
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23Jan

UK. Climate communications: Why Olivia Colman’s Make My Money Matter campaign went viral

Thousands of business leaders convened in Davos last week for the World Economic Forum’s annual summit. Top of their to-do list this year, as evidenced by the summit’s theme, is rebuilding public trust in the ability of the private sector to work with policymakers in addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges including the climate crisis. This will be no mean feat. Historic climate action failures resulted in the hottest year on record, during which leaders met in an...

January 23, 2024
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22Jan

UK woman’s pension stopped as provider refuses to believe she’s alive

A retired UK teacher's pension has been stopped after her provider repeatably refused to believe she's still alive. The Guardian have reported that 85-year-old Eileen McGrath was forced to endure Christmas with no pension payments after Teachers’ Pensions confused her for someone else, who was dead. “In November I had received two letters from Teachers’ Pensions asking me euphemistically if I was dead,” she said. “I immediately called to make it clear that I was very much alive. Nevertheless, a week...

January 22, 2024
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19Jan

PPF 7800 Index

By Pension Protection Fund The PPF 7800 Index tracks the level of underfunding risk in the PPF-eligible universe using the latest scheme return information provided to The Pensions Regulator and the roll- forward methodology used for PPF levy purposes. There are certain simplifications within the levy calculation, as described in note 4 on page 7 of this document, that should be borne in mind when interpreting these results. In particular, the assets and liabilities have not been reduced for benefit...

January 19, 2024
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19Jan

UK. Pension derisking to continue but may need rethinking

Mercer analysis of FTSE 350 pension funds, shows an aggregate surplus across company accounts of £47bn at the end of December 2023, a fall of £12bn over the month. Most companies report their accounts at the end of December, so although the funding position fell over the month, overall positions in 2023 saw an improvement. Schemes might expect to continue de-risking during 2024, supported by planned incoming regulation. Government’s upcoming consultation on options for DB schemes has the potential to create...

January 19, 2024
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19Jan

UK. Pensions changes on the Horizon for 2024

In 2023 a number of announcements were made about changes to pensions law that are expected to take place during 2024. In addition to proposals set out in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement (summarised here), some other significant developments we expect are: Automatic enrolment: The vast majority of UK employers have to automatically enrol certain employees and other workers into an appropriate pension scheme. The Government has proposed that the qualifying age threshold for auto-enrolment will be reduced from 22 to...

January 19, 2024
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