Helping members run their schemes, November 2024 Update

I am writing between two major political set-pieces: the Budget, which proved less far-reaching for pensions than many had expected; and this Thursday’s Mansion House Speech, which looks set to make up for that - if our team’s reading of the smoke signals is anything to go by.

As you know from my previous emails, the PLSA Policy team was highly engaged with Ministers and officials in the Budget run-up and I am tempted to think (though we will never really know) that our input was a factor in the decision not to go ahead with the much-mooted imposition of National Insurance on employer’s pension contributions.

However, before we congratulate ourselves too much, our team is starting to hear from members that the application of Inheritance Tax to DC pension pots raises a series of tricky technical questions for schemes and administrators. That certainly came through during the Policy Insights Webinar that I hosted last week on the Budget and Pensions Review. Jordi Skilbeck in our Policy team is the lucky man holding the pen on our consultation response and I know he is keen to hear from members with insights on this ([email protected]).

The Chancellor’s increase in employers’ National Insurance costs also puts a question mark over the progress we want to see on boosting minimum auto-enrolment contributions – a further cause for concern. Phase 2 of the Pensions Review, which will cover Adequacy, now looks even more important. You can find our PolicyWatch Budget Special, summarising and analysing all the pensions measures, in the member-only area.

Meanwhile, the indications are that pensions will feature heavily in the Chancellor’s Mansion House Speech on Thursday, where we expect the next steps in the ‘Pensions and Growth’ / UK investment agenda. Consolidation in the Local Government Pension Scheme and driving towards scale in DC and UK investment look like key areas. We have, of course, been having plenty of conversations on these fronts, too, so let’s see what emerges. We’ll delve into all these issues at our Pensions Policy Summit at PwC’s London offices on 28 November.

I should also note that we will soon be sending out invoices for 2025 PLSA membership subscriptions. Do please let me know if you have any questions about this ([email protected]). If, for some reason, you do not wish to renew, please inform us before the deadline of 30 November; otherwise, your membership will renew automatically.

Thank you for your continued support for the PLSA.