LGPS Current Issues | September 2024
And in other news
Ministerial and Departmental changes
As mentioned, following the General Election it was announced that the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) would revert back to its former name of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). This reverses what the new Government defined as a “slogan” from the former administration.
Within Government itself, Jim McMahon MP was appointed Minister of State at MHCLG. This role now includes ministerial responsibility for local government, including the LGPS. Emma Reynolds MP has also been appointed Parliamentary Secretary across both HMT and DWP and will have overall ministerial responsibility for pensions.
The SAB chair has written to Jim McMahon welcoming him to his new role and setting out the Board’s key priorities for what lies ahead. This included comment on the Good Governance project, pooling and also the Gender Pensions Gap.
2022/23 Scheme Annual Report now published
The SAB have now issued their Scheme Annual Report. The report brought together details from both English and Welsh LGPS fund 2022/23 annual reports and provided specifics regarding the position of the LGPS for employers, members and other stakeholders.
Pension Dashboards updates
In August, the LGA published the LGPS Pensions Dashboards Connection Guide to help administering authorities connect to the pensions dashboards ecosystem.
They also published the AVCs and Pensions Dashboards Administrator Guide to establish common approaches on the preparation and provision of AVC view data to the pensions dashboards ecosystem.
PASA’s Spring 2024 update on Pension Dashboards outlined details on matching and administration readiness, synthetic test costs and AVCs. In June, they also issued new guidance regarding data presence and accuracy, which supports administrators on how to develop and uphold accuracy of data. The PDP also issued version 1.1 of its draft code of connection in August.
TPR’s program of nudge communications to schemes is due to start in advance of the 31 October 2025 connection date. The series of e-mails will set out expectations for administering authorities and the development of their dashboard implementation.
In November TPR will issue a dashboard readiness survey to administering authorities. It covers key areas such as awareness of duties, preparation for connection, data preparation, compliance, and engagement.
Lifetime Allowance abolition
The English, Welsh, and Scottish versions of the “Abolition of the LTA” technical guide produced by the LGA have been updated.
In its August newsletter, HMRC also confirmed that a short technical consultation took place in August on draft regulations which will seek to address technical inaccuracies in the current legislation following the LTA abolition. Changes covered will include those relating to transitional tax-free amount certificates (TTFACs) and what the responsibilities of members/administering authorities should be.
In addition, on 6 June 2024, SPPA issued an email to administering authorities regarding the payment of pension commencement excess lump sums (PCELS) from the LGPS which confirmed that the long-term policy was being considered as to whether PCELSs should be allowed to be paid from the LGPS and what their limitations should be.