The Pensions Brief: June 2020

Published date13 July 2020
Subject MatterEmployment and HR, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Retirement, Superannuation & Pensions, Employee Benefits & Compensation, Employment and Workforce Wellbeing
Law FirmMayer Brown
AuthorMr Ian Wright, Jay Doraisamy and Beth Brown

Issues affecting all schemes

Update to Pensions Regulator's COVID-19 guidance

During June, the Pensions Regulator (the "Regulator") updated various pieces of guidance that it had produced to help trustees and sponsoring employers deal with COVID-19.

Changes were made to the Regulator's guidance for sponsoring employers on automatic enrolment and DC pension contributions to reflect the fact that:

  • the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ("CJRS") will end on 31 October 2020 and that the proportion of an employee's salary that the employer will be able to claim under the CJRS will reduce to a maximum of 70% (or '2,187.50) in September 2020, and 60% (or '1,875) in October 2020;
  • from 1 July 2020, employees that have been furloughed will be able to work part-time for their employer The money that employees will receive under the CJRS will be pro-rated in accordance with the part-time hours that each employee works, and pension contributions should be paid on the total amount of money received by the employee (for example, if an employee earned '1,000 a month from working and was due '500 furlough pay, then pension contributions should be made based on the total amount - '1,500); and
  • from 1 August 2020, employers will no longer be able to claim the statutory minimum automatic enrolment pension contribution on an employee's furlough pay.

In addition to this, the guidance for trustees on scheme administration was updated to:

  • reiterate the importance of all scheme members (especially those who are deemed to be vulnerable) having the ability to contact the scheme administrator;
  • state that trustees should continue working with their administrator to agree a "plan for delivery", focusing on which tasks should be prioritised, and ensuring that any non-critical demands and/or queries that trustees would normally direct towards the administrator are limited and
  • re-emphasise the need for trustees and administrators to do their best in ensuring that members do not fall victim to pension scams.

Finally, the trustee guidance on reporting duties and enforcement activities was updated to reflect that the trustee reporting requirements which the Regulator paused at the start of COVID-19 will resume as usual on 1 July 2020. The only exception to this is that providers will continue to have 150 days (rather than the standard 90 days) in which to report late payments of contributions (other than deficit repair contributions) - although the Regulator will review this easement...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT