The government is consulting on its draft regulations for bulk transfer of contracted-out pension rights without member consent. The consultation closes on January 17 2018.
The Department for Work and Pensions is seeking views on the Contracting-out (Transfer and Transfer Payment) (Amendment) Regulations 2018. The regulations enable bulk transfers of contracted-out rights to take place in certain circumstances without member consent, to schemes that have never been contracted out.
It said that conditions of the transfer will be that the rights of the member are not adversely affected, and that the same protections must be provided by the new scheme.
With the introduction of the new State Pension on 6 April 2016 and the abolition of contracting out for salary-related schemes, it is no longer possible to transfer contracted-out rights without consent to a new scheme.
The DWP said it is aware that a number of schemes, particularly schemes within the same group of companies, that would like to perform bulk transfers without member consent but are prevented from doing so by the legislation.
