DWP Consultation – Surplus flexibilities for defined benefit pension schemes
June 19, 2026
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Since I first read the draft Pension Schemes Act, I have thought “Wow, this is so upside down!”. Back in the day, I was a Personnel Manager with Digital Equipment Corporation. Before that title was replaced with “human resources”.
On file somewhere there will be the minutes of the Operations Committee’s decision to offer a pension as part of the benefits package to new employees. This was a widely established practice to attract & retain employees with the skills necessary to grow the business. The principal focus of the pension was the employee. The pension was a promise of deferred payment.
But if you read the Pension Scheme Act, you would conclude that the focus of the pension is the company! Any surplus that the Trustee agrees to release will go to the company first with benefits for members dependent on “negotiation”.
The Minister exact words – “Pensions Scheme Act 2026 will enable more trustees of well-funded defined benefit schemes to share surplus with sponsoring employers, allowing them to negotiate additional benefits for members, including discretionary indexation.”
Our DWP submission will try to turn this around. Surplus extraction must benefit pensioners.
Patricia Kennedy, Chair. July 2026.
Over the past year, our HPPA campaign has flourished and grown to become the Pre-97 Pension Justice Alliance (sometimes shortened to the Pre-97 Alliance). The Pre-97 Alliance includes 12 pension groups from companies who do not provide regular inflation cost of living increases to their pre-97 pensioners.
Company | Years without increase since 2002 |
Nissan | 26 * since 2001 |
Wood Group | 23 |
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) | 22 |
NCR Scotland (Atleos) | 22 |
STMicroelectronics | 21 |
Atos/Sema | 20 |
American Express | 19 |
AIG | 18 |
Pfizer | 16 |
3M | 16 |
Chevron | 13 |
Lloyds Register | 9 from 2016 |
We encourage all Pre-97 pensioners, who do not receive annual inflation increases, to join and use our platforms to stay up to date with news and events. Please sign up to be included in our ‘ call to action’ emails and receive newsletters about the campaign. We are all working together for Pre-97 Pension Justice.
This month’s newsletter provides important updates about the ongoing campaign for pension justice. Latest Campaign Updates New PM, New Opportunity As a new
HPPA is funded by voluntary donations from its members. If you would like to donate please click here. Please note – if you are paying by cheque then please make the cheque payable to ‘Hewlett Packard Pension Association’ and not HPPA as it says on the donations page.
