The Pension Quality Mark (PQM) has been awarded to IKEA and Lufthansa, while NEST (National Employment Savings Trust) has achieved PQM READY.
PQM is a standard that marks out high quality defined contribution (DC) pension schemes.
PQM is designed to raise confidence in workplace pensions, help employers demonstrate the value of their scheme to current and future employees, and help employees recognise that their scheme is of high quality. It is available for all types of DC pension schemes, whether occupational, GPP, or stakeholder, as long as they meet the PQM standards.
Justine Tate, Managing Director, PQM, said:
“Congratulations to IKEA, Lufthansa and NEST for gaining PQM accreditation. It’s great news and marks their pension schemes out as meeting an independent quality benchmark. We know the vast majority of PQM holders say it helps their scheme stand out from the crowd and encapsulates what matters most to their members. It is an important means of building confidence and trust and 186 firms have now been awarded PQM.”
IKEA and Lufthansa have been awarded PQM for their employee pension schemes.
Pernille Hagild, IKEA’s Country HR Manager said:
“We are delighted to have received this award for the IKEA Retirement Income Scheme (IRIS). IKEA is fully committed to supporting all co-workers with their pension saving choices, and help build savings for retirement. IRIS is open to all our co-workers, this means confidence in pension saving, and a more sustainable retirement. The PQM is a great endorsement of our commitment.”
Tobi Junker, Director Compensation & Benefits International Lufthansa Group said:
“Employee benefits and occupational pension plans always were – and will be in future – a very important element of the total compensation package at Lufthansa. We are proud of having achieved the gold standard for our DC pension plan in the UK. It seals what we have been striving for, with the PQM as final proof of a sustainably strong product for our employees.”
The PQM is for all DC schemes which meet three core criteria:
- Contributions of at least 10% with a minimum employer contribution of 6%. PQM Plus is available where contributions are at least 15% with a minimum of 10% employer contribution.
- Governance arrangements must be in place to ensure the scheme is operating in the best interest of members.
- Communication to members must be clear, engaging and easy-to-understand.
NEST has been awarded PQM READY, the standard for master trusts and multi-employer schemes.
Tim Jones, Chief Executive at NEST, said:
“As the scheme established by government specifically for automatic enrolment, NEST has an important role to play in helping ensure the workplace pension reforms are a success. It is vital that employers have an easy to recognise quality mark to rely on when choosing a scheme – particularly those employers who have less experience of pensions.
“Employers choosing NEST can be confident they’re using a scheme that meets high standards of governance, is good quality and great value. Now that we've joined PQM they can also quickly and easily apply for a quality mark in respect of their use of NEST where they meet the contribution standards.”
Notes to editors:
PQM was launched in 2009 and is wholly owned by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF). PQM is a standard that recognises high quality DC pension schemes. It is designed to raise confidence in workplace pensions, helping employers demonstrate that their scheme is good quality. PQM has been given to 186 pension schemes, and covers a third of a million active scheme members. There are two standards, PQM and PQM PLUS:
Under PQM, the scheme’s total contributions must equal at least 10% of an employee’s pensionable salary, with a minimum employer contribution of 6%.
Under PQM PLUS, the scheme’s total contributions must equal at least 15%, with a minimum employer contribution of 10%.
PQM READY was launched in February 2013 and aims to help employers spot a good multi-employer pension scheme or mastertrust. Further information about the Pension Quality Mark can be found at www.pensionqualitymark.org.uk
The NAPF is the leading voice of workplace pensions in the UK. We speak for 1,300 pension schemes with some 16 million members and assets of around £900 billion. NAPF members also include over 400 businesses providing essential services to the pensions sector.
The IKEA Group is the world’s leading home furnishing retailer with a grand total of 298 IKEA stores in 26 countries/territories that are visited by 690 million people every year.
IKEA UK has 18 stores and IKEA Ireland has 1 store. The first IKEA store in the UK was opened in Warrington in 1987.
The IKEA Group has 139,000 co-workers in 41 different countries over four continents. There are 7,200 employees currently working at IKEA UK and Ireland organisation.
IKEA has a range of 9,500 different home furnishing products. The company was established in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad at the age of 17, in Småland in Sweden.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is an Aviation Group comprising around 400 subsidiaries and affiliates. The Lufthansa Group is dedicated to quality and innovation, safety and reliability. Headquartered in Germany, the Group operates in five business segments – passenger transportation (Passenger Airline Group), logistics, MRO, catering and IT-services. Passenger transportation is the Group’s core business: The airlines engaged in the passenger transportation business are Lufthansa German Airlines (including Lufthansa Regional), Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Germanwings as well as stake-holdings in Brussels Airlines, JetBlue und SunExpress. In the 2013 business year, the airlines in the Lufthansa Group welcomed more than 104 million passengers on board their flights, making it Europe’s leading airline grouping. Operating through the Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Brussels hubs, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines jointly serve over 270 destinations in 106 countries on four continents. The Group fleet currently consists of 632 aircraft – on order are another 295 new aircraft, valued at a total of more than 36 billion euros at list price and scheduled for delivery until 2025. With its on-going expenditure in fleet renewal, the Group is consistently making the fleet more cost-efficient and its operations more environment-friendly. Mid of March 2013 the Lufthansa Group employed around 117,000 people. In the 2012 business year, it generated revenues totalling 30.1 billion euros. More details are available at www.lufthansagroup.com
NEST, which was established by government as part of the workplace pension reforms, is a national defined contribution workplace pension scheme available to all employers to use to meet their new duties. It is designed around the needs of people who are largely new to pension saving, and their employers, with clear communications, low charges and easy online tools and services. It is run as a trust-based scheme, on a not-for-profit basis, and the trustee has a legal duty to act in its members’ interests.
NEST has a public service obligation to accept any employer (whatever their size) who wants to use the scheme to meet their duties, as a sole scheme or alongside other provision. NEST is helping the employers it is working with to prepare for automatic enrolment using a range of resources and communication tools which take them on a journey from planning to implementation, through its online employer help centre.
Contacts:
NAPF media enquiries should be directed to:
Lucy Grubb, Head of Media and PR, NAPF, 020 7601 1726 or 07713 073023, [email protected]
Aimee Savage Richards, Press Officer (interim), 020 7601 1718 or 07825 171 446, [email protected]
IKEA media enquiries should be directed to:
Aisha Gibson, Press Officer, IKEA, [email protected], 0845 2257126 www.IKEA.com
Lufthansa media enquiries should be directed to:
Nils Hesselink, Lufthansa, [email protected]
NEST media enquiries should be directed to:
Heather Tilston, Head of Media and PR:
[email protected], 0203 056 3728
Frances Hughes, Media Manager:
[email protected], 0203 056 3936
www.nestpensions.org.uk