Simpler annual statements mandatory from October 2022

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that trustees and other providers of workplace money purchase pension schemes will have to provide their members with simpler annual benefit statements. Amendment Regulations were laid before Parliament and come into force on 1 October 2022. Statutory guidance has also been published.

September inflation

The rate of inflation for the year to September 2021 on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) basis was 3.1 per cent; it will be the magic number for many statutory increase provisions. For comparison purposes, the rate of inflation based on the Retail Prices Index (RPI) was 4.9 per cent, and 2.9 per cent using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH).

Pensions Ombudsman guide to communicating with members

The Pension Ombudsman’s office has published a two-page guide to Communicating with Members, in which it uses its experience to give tips that will help pensions providers resolve disputes informally, and avoid ending up dealing with a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Regulator updates guidance webpages

The Pension Regulator has updated its main COVID-related guidance page to say that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has now ended, and has removed the guidance provided during the pandemic. It is now referring employers and trustees to its pre-COVID guidance (and for those who still want access to deleted material, the National Archives website).

HMRC newsletters: October 2021

In Countdown Bulletin 56, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) grants a stay of execution to its Scheme Cessation and Scheme Reconciliation eRooms. The process of shutting down the eRooms was supposed to begin on 1 September 2021, but has been postponed until the end of November to allow scheme administrators more time to extract the required information. It also provides an email address (CRM.schemereconciliationservice@hmrc.gov.uk) for GMP-related queries that cannot be resolved via the ‘GMP Checker’ service.