Press Releases

Where and how to set State Pension age (SPa) is a significant issue in social policy. Club Vita is delighted to respond to the Interim Report of the Independent Review of State Pension age.

While the longevity gap between the best and worst off in society narrows, a universal State Pension age should be retained. State Pension age (SPa) is playing catch-up:  Longevity has been rising faster than legislated increases in SPa.

Mark Jaffray, Head of DC Investment Consultancy responds to the FCA consultation into transaction cost disclosure in workplace pensions.

Commenting on the Work and Pensions Select Committee report calling for greater enforcement powers for The Pensions Regulator (TPR), Patrick Bloomfield, Partner at Hymans Robertson, said: “Pushing for recovery plans of less than 10 years for DB schemes is the wrong thing to do. It would force wide scale risk taking tantamount to gambling as well as putting more strain on sponsors who would inevitably be called upon to contribute even more towards deficits. Committing more cash to schemes is unaffordable for many companies. We need healthy sponsors to ensure there’s a good chance of paying benefits to pensioners in full, otherwise we risk more schemes falling into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) where members lose £45,000 of their benefits on average. 

We are pleased to announce changes to our public sector consulting team. John Wright, Head of Public Sector, will continue to focus on helping clients respond to industry issues and change, as well as having oversight of the development and delivery of its actuarial, investment and benefits services for public sector clients. Barry McKay becomes Head of LGPS Actuarial, working alongside David Walker as Head of LGPS Investment and Ian Colvin as Head of Benefits Consulting.

Our experts give their views on what to expect for the coming year. Including pension policy, the DB outlook, what's likely to top the agenda in DC, the investment outlook and what’s likely to be on the agenda for benefits.

If the Triple Lock is removed state pensions will still need to increase faster than inflation or earnings as we are not saving enough for retirement. Overall savings shortfalls will be far greater than any cost savings from removing the Triple Lock. It has cost the government £1.8-2 billion over seven years which is insignificant compared to the £8 billion per year which will ultimately be saved by the introduction of the new Single Tier

Head of Trustee Consulting at Hymans Robertson, Calum Cooper comments on the findings from the PPF's 2016 Purple Book.

The Government has confirmed its longstanding belief that schemes ought to adjust their pensions to compensate for disparities in Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) for men and women, and is consulting on a proposed methodology for doing this.  

A truly integrated approach will reduce the likelihood of deficits staying stubbornly high from ‘1 in 4’ to ‘1 in 12’ over a 20 year period. Only 1/3 schemes are likely to reach funding goals by 2036. The number of schemes reaching their goals could increase by 50% to 1 in 2 with a fully integrated approach to scheme management that incorporates the risk of sponsor default

The Chancellor’s announcement that the Money Purchase Annual Allowance will be reduced to £4,000 from £10,000 in April 2017 is a blow to flexible working. 

Our 3DAnalytics, which provides real-time updates to the funding positions of DB pension schemes, has shown that the total UK DB deficit has gone down by £35bn since the US election result and down by over £200bn from a record high of over £1 trillion in August.