PENSION ADMINISTRATION TECHNICAL HELP
PATHways 173
Highlighting pensions news and legislation that has
particular relevance to what we do in pension administration
In this edition of PATHways, we cover:
- Pension Schemes Bill published
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the implications of Virgin Media past benefits ruling and workplace pensions roadmap
- The Pensions Regulator (TPR) announces new trusteeship strategy
James Freeman contributed to the writing of this newsletter.

Pension Schemes Bill published
The Pension Schemes Bill 2024/25 was published on 5 June. This includes the following provisions which may have relevance to the administration of occupational pension schemes, subject to the Bill’s passage through Parliament:
Defined benefit schemes – employer surplus payments
Part One of the Bill includes an overriding statutory power allowing trustees to make surplus payments to the sponsoring employer, subject to restrictions. These restrictions include a requirement for an actuary to certify that certain conditions are met in relation to the scheme’s assets and liabilities before such a payment can be made.
Defined contribution schemes
Part Two of the Bill is intended to:
- Set up the framework for occupational DC schemes to assess the value for money they offer to their members and publish those assessments. TPR may be given enforcement powers in respect of these assessments, which may ultimately include requiring trustees to transfer members to a different pension arrangement if this will result in those members experiencing better value for money.
- Allow the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring most dormant pots of £1,000 or less in DC schemes used for auto enrolment to be moved to a consolidator scheme. Consolidator schemes will either be Master Trusts or certain FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) regulated schemes from a list which will be published by the FCA. Dormant pots will be those which have not received a contribution for at least twelve months. Members will be given at least 30 days to opt out of the transfer or choose an alternative consolidator scheme.
- Require multi-employer DC schemes (with some exemptions) to have at least one arrangement with at least £25 billion in assets by 2030, to facilitate economies of scale and increased investment diversity for these schemes.
- Require occupational DC schemes to have at least one ‘default pension benefit solution’ in place. These would be arrangements for making payments designed to provide the member with a regular income in retirement, without the member having to make a choice.
Defined benefit schemes – superfunds
Part Three of the Bill would set up a legislative framework for the regulation of DB superfunds. Broadly speaking, these are trust-based DB consolidation schemes authorised by TPR. Superfunds are designed to receive transfers of liability from closed DB schemes, for example, where the transferring scheme’s financial position is not strong enough to arrange an insurer buyout. These superfunds are intended to offer economies of scale and a higher standard of governance than the transferring schemes.
Pension Ombudsman – payment disputes
Part Four of the Bill would provide that Ombudsman determinations can be enforced to resolve a dispute over money owed from the payment of an occupational pension without the need for the trustees to obtain a court order.

TPR announces new trusteeship strategy
TPR’s Chief Executive has given a speech to the Pensions Management Institute in which she signalled that TPR would be seeking to bring trusteeship into line with other professions and their corporate governance standards. This is intended to align with the new requirements in the Pension Schemes Bill. The speech set out ‘five key traits [which] are central to good trusteeship’:
- Focus on saver outcomes – including defining objectives for savers.
- Constructive challenge – such as dealing with potential conflicts of interest.
- Highly skilled and diligent trustee boards – accreditation standards for trustees will be developed.
- Collaborative but accountable trustees – including having the ability to challenge advisers to the scheme.
- Data-led trustees – developing open data standards and industry working groups for data quality.
TPR has also published guidance for trustees considering the long-term objectives of their DB scheme, covering continuing to run on the scheme, insurance buy-in and buy-outs, and the alternatives to these arrangements.
DWP updates
Virgin Media v NTL Pension Trustees – retrospective actuarial confirmation
The Court of Appeal handed down a judgment on 25 July 2024 in the case of Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees Ltd which had potentially far-reaching implications for DB schemes which were formerly contracted-out. The judgment upheld a High Court ruling that because a scheme had amended its benefits in 1999 without evidence of obtaining actuarial confirmation that it still met the ‘reference scheme test’ for post-1997 contracted-out benefits, those amendments were void. It also held that the requirement for this actuarial confirmation applied to both past and future service rights.
The DWP has announced that the Government will introduce legislation which will allow schemes which would be affected by this issue to obtain retrospective written actuarial confirmation that their past scheme rule changes met the necessary standard which applied at the time. This will resolve the uncertainty for these schemes as to whether those rule changes were validly made.
Workplace pensions roadmap
The DWP has published a policy paper which accompanies the Pension Schemes Bill and sets out the Government’s intended reforms and the proposed timing of their implementation. This is intended to help pension scheme providers understand the changes which will happen in the following five years.
PASA new and updated guidance
The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has published new and updated guidance during June 2024 in several of the areas its working groups cover.
Data Presence vs Accuracy
The PASA Data Working Group continues to produce content regularly and has published new guidance on ‘Data Presence vs Accuracy’. The main part of the guidance focuses on what trustees can do to improve data accuracy, suggesting trustees conduct an audit of data quality to identify potential issues in their data and areas of weakness, and on reviewing the data accuracy, carry out data remediation work as necessary. The guidance also suggests that consideration is given to ongoing monitoring on a periodic basis to help ‘future proof’ data accuracy.
Master trust transitions guidance
The PASA Master Trust Working Group has published updated guidance on master trust transitions following on from the original version issued in November 2019.
The updated guidance accounts for developments in the master trust space in the intervening years and is designed for situations involving transitions of savers to and from master trusts, focusing on the two most common scenarios:
- master trust to master trust; and
- single employer trust to master trust.
As well as industry developments, other topics covered include transition planning and suggested project governance, and communications.
DWP – combining small pension pots
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced on 24 April 2025 plans to bring eligible small pension pots together under reforms to be included in the Pension Schemes Bill, as part of the Government’s Plan for Change. It follows the findings of the work conducted by the Small Pots Delivery Group aimed at supporting the design and implementation of the new small pots multiple consolidator scheme approach, The aim of the initiative is to:
- automatically combine the number of eligible small pots of £1000 or less into one pension scheme that is certified as delivering good value to savers. Individuals will retain the right to choose their own consolidator scheme or opt out;
- help workers keep track of their pensions and get a better rate of return on these retirement savings by reducing the number of flat rate charges paid from their multiple small funds; and
- save businesses millions in unnecessary costs involved with administering an increasing number of small funds, as a result of Automatic Enrolment.
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