Winner of the 2022 Pension Quality Mark Distinction Award announced

The Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA)’s has announced that Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan is the winner of its Pension Quality Mark (PQM) Distinction Award.

The announcement was made at the PLSA’s Annual Conference in Liverpool. The award recognises excellence in high quality Defined Contribution (DC) pension schemes.

Judges looked for evidence that actions taken led to good saver outcomes. Over three years Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan almost doubled the number of members saving the maximum amount of 21%.

In addition, judges were impressed that the scheme has an escalator system to increase contributions automatically with each year of employment and is also doing a lot of positive engagement with members. The judges commented that this also showed that being a small employer is not a barrier to providing a good pension.

Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan, provided by Aviva on behalf of Lubrizol – a global specialty chemical company with UK headquarters in Derbyshire – look after the interests of around 500 members.

In addition to Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan, The Electricity North West Group of the ESPS: DC Section was recognised for its submission and was highly commended.

In total six schemes were short-listed for the Award from current PQM holders. The winner was chosen by members of the PQM Standards Committee. The theme of this year’s award is adequacy, which is also the PLSA’s strategic policy priority. The aim of this is to encourage members to save for an adequate income in retirement, by whatever means is most appropriate and effective for that workforce.

Schemes shortlisted were:

• The Electricity North West Group of the ESPS: DC Section
• Kellogg Company of Great Britain, Ltd (Defined Contribution)
• Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan
• United Utilities Pension Plan
• HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Scheme - DC Section
• Michelin Pension and Life Assurance Plan

Joe Dabrowski, Deputy Director of Policy, PLSA, said: “I’d like to congratulate Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan for winning this prestigious award as well as The Electricity North West Group of the ESPS: DC Section for their highly commended entry.

“Once again, this was a difficult decision for the judges to make, because of the very high calibre of all the shortlisted schemes that met the high standards expected to be a Pension Quality Mark holder.”

Olenka Kaczmarczyk, EMEAI Total Rewards Manager, Lubrizol, said: “We’re delighted to receive the PQM Distinction Award, recognising the high quality of the Lubrizol Group Personal Pension Plan.

“It’s very important for us to help all employees understand the significance of saving for their retirement and encourage them to save sufficiently for their future. Our employees and their well-being are always a top priority and Lubrizol is proud to be recognised in this area.”

Mark Smith, Head of Media Relations
020 7601 1726 | [email protected]

Steven Kennedy, Senior PR Manager
020 7601 1737 | 07713 073024 | [email protected]