Sarah Miller comments in Pensions Expert on scope of DWP’s regulations for struggling contracted-out schemes
The Department for Work and Pensions has published regulations allowing struggling contracted-out schemes in a Pension Protection Fund assessment period or in talks over a regulated apportionment arrangement to transfer liabilities to schemes that have never been contracted out.
Sarah Miller argued that the scope could have been extended to cover other situations where schemes need to be transferred or merged, such as in preparation for buyout.
Citing a recent client for whom the firm was successful in setting up a new contracted-out scheme to transfer into within the appropriate time frame, she said protracted current procedures had threatened the project.
“We were obviously lucky, but even with that we had a whole load of hurdles to jump through,” she said.
However, she added that growing pressure from schemes was leading to an improved service from HM Revenue & Customs’ scheme reconciliation service.
Read the full article in Pensions Expert here.
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