Pension <——-> noisneP
Since I first read the draft Pension Schemes Bill, 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 so any surplus extraction are benefits for pensioners.