Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to protect members of workplace pension schemes whose employers have not selected a suitable scheme.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
As part of the introduction of automatic enrolment, requirements were put in place, under the Pensions Act 2008, to ensure that workplace pension schemes selected by an employer to meet their obligations satisfy certain quality and governance standards. The Pensions Regulator enforces employer compliance with the Automatic Enrolment duties.
The Government regularly undertakes public consultations on private pensions policy and encourages all interested parties, including scheme members to submit their views.
In 2020, the department undertook a review of the charge cap and accompanying Pensions Charges Survey. The review concluded that the current level of the charge cap remained appropriate at 0.75 per cent of funds under management within the default arrangement, or an equivalent combination charge.
On 24th May, the department launched a public consultation looking at Permitted Charges within DC Pensions. The consultation seeks views on a proposal to move to a universal charging structure within the charge cap to improve member comprehension of charges, and in turn better enable members to compare pension products if they wish. This consultation also confirms our intention to set a de Minimis on the charging of flats fees within the cap. This will help limit the erosion of small pots of £100 or less, where a flat fee is charged.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps members of workplace pension schemes can take if they consider their employer scheme charges are excessively high.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
As part of the introduction of automatic enrolment, requirements were put in place, under the Pensions Act 2008, to ensure that workplace pension schemes selected by an employer to meet their obligations satisfy certain quality and governance standards. The Pensions Regulator enforces employer compliance with the Automatic Enrolment duties.
The Government regularly undertakes public consultations on private pensions policy and encourages all interested parties, including scheme members to submit their views.
In 2020, the department undertook a review of the charge cap and accompanying Pensions Charges Survey. The review concluded that the current level of the charge cap remained appropriate at 0.75 per cent of funds under management within the default arrangement, or an equivalent combination charge.
On 24th May, the department launched a public consultation looking at Permitted Charges within DC Pensions. The consultation seeks views on a proposal to move to a universal charging structure within the charge cap to improve member comprehension of charges, and in turn better enable members to compare pension products if they wish. This consultation also confirms our intention to set a de Minimis on the charging of flats fees within the cap. This will help limit the erosion of small pots of £100 or less, where a flat fee is charged.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government where responsibility lies for the monitoring of pension scheme charges in automatic enrolment workplace schemes.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
As part of the introduction of automatic enrolment, requirements were put in place, under the Pensions Act 2008, to ensure that workplace pension schemes selected by an employer to meet their obligations satisfy certain quality and governance standards. The Pensions Regulator enforces employer compliance with the Automatic Enrolment duties.
The Government regularly undertakes public consultations on private pensions policy and encourages all interested parties, including scheme members to submit their views.
In 2020, the department undertook a review of the charge cap and accompanying Pensions Charges Survey. The review concluded that the current level of the charge cap remained appropriate at 0.75 per cent of funds under management within the default arrangement, or an equivalent combination charge.
On 24th May, the department launched a public consultation looking at Permitted Charges within DC Pensions. The consultation seeks views on a proposal to move to a universal charging structure within the charge cap to improve member comprehension of charges, and in turn better enable members to compare pension products if they wish. This consultation also confirms our intention to set a de Minimis on the charging of flats fees within the cap. This will help limit the erosion of small pots of £100 or less, where a flat fee is charged.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 27 April (HL14861), whether the statistics provided include those aged over 80 who received no State Pension; and, if not, as of March 2021 how many (1) women, and (2) men, living in the UK aged over 80 were receiving no State Pension.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
I can confirm that the figures provided in HL14861 only include those aged over 80 that are currently in receipt of a State Pension.
The Department does not hold the information to answer how many individuals are not in receipt of State Pension.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) women, and (2) men, over the age of 80 living in the UK received less than £80.45 a week in state pension in the past year.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
As of March 2021, there were 15,739 women, and 5,354 men living in the UK that were aged 80 or over and in receipt of a State Pension of less than £80.45.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the number of women who did not receive the automatic uplifts to their State Pension under the rules applying from 17 March 2008, and (2) the number of women who failed to claim uplifts due prior to March 2008.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
1) On the 4 March, I laid a written statement (UIN HLWS818) to inform the House that the Department had formally commenced a State Pension correction exercise on 11 January 2021. The estimates around the number of individuals effected by this issue are highly uncertain and will be continuously revised as the correction activity progresses.
2) No assessment has been made.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what reporting they require from (1) pension providers, (2) employers, and (3) payroll operators, to verify the accuracy of auto-enrolment pension contributions; and what steps they (a) have taken, or (b) plan to take, to ensure that pension contribution records are routinely (i) checked, and (ii) reconciled, for auto-enrolment data errors each year.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott - Opposition Whip (Lords)
Automatic enrolment has been a great success, with over 10 million employees enrolled and more than 1.7 million employers having met their duties to date. Government has put in place a robust, proportionate compliance framework. This is administered by The Pensions Regulator (TPR), and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law. An employer is required to select a qualifying pension scheme; enrol qualifying staff into that scheme, and deduct any contributions payable under automatic enrolment.
Employers as well as the trustees or managers of pension schemes must keep certain records including details of the pension contributions payable in each relevant pay reference period by an employer to the scheme. This includes the contributions due on the employer’s behalf and deductions made from an individual’s earnings. As part of the Regulator’s guidance, employers and pension scheme trustees or managers must hold information about payment schedules and contributions for six years, except for opt-outs which must be kept for a minimum of four years.
TPR has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of defined contribution pension schemes and managers of personal pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions, provide information to help members check their contributions and report material payment failures to TPR. As part of TPR’s codes of practice and guidance, there is a requirement for scheme providers to have sufficient monitoring processes in place. This includes having a risk based approach to monitor employers who should have in place appropriate internal controls to ensure correct and timely payment of contributions due to meet their employer duties. If the trustee or manager becomes aware that this is not the case, or that the employer does not appear to be taking adequate steps to remedy the situation, for example where there are repetitive and regular payment failures, then it must be reported to TPR. The responsibility lies with the employer to ensure their payroll processes are correct whether in house or outsourced. TPR’s compliance checks include checks of employer payroll processes and detailed reviews of payroll software. TPR does hold payment failure reports from pension providers but these do not necessarily represent data errors.
In addition, TPR publishes regular assessments of its automatic enrolment compliance and enforcement activities as well as an annual commentary and analysis report, both of which are available on its website.