On the go: HM Revenue & Customs has again declined to announce a new timeline for the guaranteed minimum pension reconciliation final data cuts, despite having promised that its next update would bring a string of delays to an end.
Pensions Expert reported on Monday that HMRC was introducing a solution for schemes to allocate GMP top-up payments they owe to specific members, since the taxman was not able to identify which individuals partial payments referred to.
This meant that the original timeline for the final contracting-out benefits data cut, initially promised in December, would be delayed. However, HMRC stated in an email sent to pension administrators that it would publish this revised timeline in its next newsletter.
Countdown Bulletin 51, published on Thursday, contained instructions for schemes to allocate the partial payments to members, and also receive a refund of past payments if they do not want to allocate the top-ups to individual members, with a deadline for these actions set for March 13 2020.
HMRC stated: “This additional action will impact on the original timeline HMRC published for the issue of the final data cuts. A revised data cut timeline will be published when the allocation timeline is understood.”
Matt Davis, head of GMP equalisation at Hymans Robertson, said: “Today’s update from HMRC was meant to help address concerns from the industry following their announcement last week about further delays in the provision of final GMP data.
“The industry will be disappointed that this follow-up announcement does not provide certainty over when final GMP data will be available. HMRC must not lose sight of the industry need for this data, so we can work out which members will be due extra cash from GMP equalisation.”
