Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2016

This consultation seeks views on proposed minor and technical regulatory changes to 4 areas of pensions legislation, to ensure that the new pension flexibilities operate as intended:

• pension sharing on divorce, including a requirement that, where an attachment order exists, schemes will have to write out to the former spouse at the point the member applies to take their flexible benefits
• the final technical changes needed to reflect the pension flexibilities to operate in specific situations (for example, where a scheme is winding up)
• the Pension Protection Fund, including amendments to the Pension Protection Fund (Entry Rules) Regulations around schemes whose sponsoring employer cannot have an insolvency event
• disclosure of information, to place an obligation on trustees of occupational pension schemes to give generic risk warnings to scheme members who wish to take their benefits flexibly

The consultation also seeks views on how the government should simplify the valuation process for the purposes of the new advice requirement for pensions which contain a guaranteed annuity rate (GAR).

We welcome comments from:

• those involved in designing and running pension schemes
• pension industry professionals and advisers
• pension scheme members
• consumer groups and member representative organisations
• anyone with an interest in pensions