pension


While supporting the fundamental objective of putting the General Levy on a sustainable footing and ensuring regulatory bodies are properly resourced, our consultation response urges the Government to provide a clear, evidence-based justification for these “disproportionate” rises.

This paper synthesises insights from a major industry roundtable of leading actuaries, trustees, legal advisers, investment managers, and covenant specialists, facilitated by the SPP.

The paper challenges traditional industry momentum by examining how improved funding positions, a £160 billion aggregate surplus across UK DB schemes, and new alternatives such as superfunds and capital run-on strategies have transformed the endgame landscape.

Structural deficiencies, soaring housing costs, and shifting work patterns mean millions of UK workers are heading towards an inadequate retirement unless the government enacts significant reforms.

To help solve the crisis, in this response, the SPP have outlined a series of bold interventions that policymakers should consider in order to dramatically boost pension saving and pull forgotten workers into the savings net.

This thought leadership paper calls for the UK’s emerging Value for Money (VfM) framework to evolve into a practical tool that helps pension savers make better-informed decisions about their retirement savings.

Whilst welcoming the Government’s proposed VfM framework as a major step forward in improving transparency, accountability and standards across the pensions market, the paper argues that the current model is still primarily designed for trustees, regulators and governance bodies rather than the millions of individuals whose retirement outcomes depend on it.

Although the £14billion in Pension Protection Fund (PPF) reserves represents a significant opportunity, it also carries a responsibility to safeguard the PPF’s core mission. Striking the right balance between prudence and innovation will be critical as policymakers consider how the PPF can evolve from a “lifeboat” into a broader legacy institution for the UK pensions system. This paper explores how this could be achieved.

The SPP supports the overall direction of proposed changes to Technical Actuarial Standard 310 (TAS 310) covering actuarial work for collective defined contribution (CDC) pensions.

However, it is important that the standards remain principles-based and proportionate, allowing actuaries to exercise professional judgement while ensuring that key issues such as cross-subsidies, assumptions and scheme sustainability are clearly communicated.

This SPP response sets out its support for aligning the 2015 CARE scheme revaluation date of 1 April, with the start of the tax year (6 April) for the purposes of revaluing active members pensions.

This is because it will align the revaluation date with the tax year, simplify administration, improve consistency between tax and pension calculations, and remove an unnecessary misalignment in the current framework.

However, it will have administrative and communication implications and we therefore recommend its implementation be delayed until 2028/29.

This SPP response to the FCA consultation on ESG ratings welcomes their objective of enhancing transparency and providing robust reliable ratings and minimum disclosures for ESG rating providers.

However, the SPP warn of possible practical challenges that will require further consideration including the impact on smaller providers, access to data as well as legal and governance concerns.