The government has made a number of changes to regulations that will allow bulk transfers without member consent to schemes that have never been contracted out, and has said it will look into whether the rules should also apply to non-salary-related schemes.
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. The consultation ended on January 17 2018.
The Department for Work and Pensions had said it was aware that a number of schemes, particularly schemes within the same group of companies, would like to perform bulk transfers without member consent, but are prevented from doing so by the legislation.
The government has now changed the regulations, removing some paragraphs that industry respondents felt would create an issue. One paragraph was dropped to “remove the obstacle of the new scheme having to comply with several sets of rules covering commutation, suspension and forfeiture”.
Another regulation was removed so that “transfers of post-97 contracted-out rights will apply to both formerly contracted-out schemes and schemes that have never been contracted out”.
Some respondents also wanted to see the member consent removed for schemes that are not salary-related.
The government said it does not agree with this view, but added: “We propose to investigate this issue further with the industry, although any new proposals will not be included in the latest changes.”
