As the government announces changes to pensions regulations, David Davison explains what these mean for charities.
They say that good things come to those who wait but I suppose that depends on how long you have to wait. I’m certainly delighted after around 10 years of campaigning that it looks like finally the section 75 regulations relating to multi-employer defined benefit pension schemes (MEDBS), which have so negatively impacted on charities over many years, are to be revised.
The problem which many charities in these schemes faced was that the further build up of benefits could not be stopped without triggering an unaffordable cessation debt, therefore charities were trapped in schemes forced to continue to fund for ever rising liabilities as they couldn’t afford to exit. This was wholly inconsistent with the options available in other UK defined benefit pension schemes.
At the end of February, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued the The Occupational Pension Schemes (Employer Debt and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018 with the expectation that these new regulations will be in place from 6 April 2018.
Key proposals
The regulations are a response to consultation carried out In April 2017 and the proposals comment on the findings of the consultation and how the government has chosen to respond.
The key proposal is the introduction of the Deferred Debt Arrangement (DDA). This will allow employers in MEDBS, whose only change is to cease to employ active members in a scheme, to retain an on-going commitment to the scheme rather than a cessation debt automatically being triggered.
It is envisaged that future contributions would be set on an on-going and not cessation basis similar to what would be the position in a standalone scheme or in the event that the scheme as a whole ceased accrual. This should offer charities really significant additional flexibility allowing them to control risk in an affordable way while focusing resource on paying down liabilities already built up rather than building further amounts.
In entering in to a DDA employers would continue to have all the same funding and administration obligations to the scheme as was the case prior to the agreement which will protect member benefits and indeed other employers.
'The devil will be in the detail'
I don’t for a minute expect this to be the end of the story as we of course need to see how things play out in practice. As is ever the case, the devil will be in the detail, and we need to see how individual schemes react to the new flexibility and whether they seek to embrace it or look to put up barriers to implementing it.
There undoubtedly seems to be widespread consensus that change in this area is long overdue and along with these changes we’ll shortly witness similar changes to Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) regulation in Scotland and a review of Tier 3 employers in LGPS in England and Wales which will hopefully result in increased flexibility in these schemes as well.
Undoubtedly however this is a huge step forward and one can only hope the opportunity will be embraced by scheme trustees and employers alike.
David Davison is director and owner of Spence & Partners
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