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Welcome to our monthly update on current legal issues for trustees of DC pension schemes, designed to help you stay up to date with key developments between trustee meetings and to support the legal update item on your next trustee agenda. We have a separate update for DB/hybrid schemes.
TPR: revised administration guidance
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has publishednew guidanceoutlining steps that trustees, scheme managers and administrators should take to comply with theadministration module of its Code of Practice. This replaces previous guidance and sets out more detailed requirements for schemes, including formal policies and prioritising data, a stronger IT/automation/cyber focus, and tighter administrator engagement and oversight.
Action: Review the new guidance to identify further steps that could be taken to improve governance of scheme administration—schemes undertaking their own-risk assessment may wish to build some of these steps into their future plans
TPR has published revisedguidanceon member data. The guidance consolidates all previous data-related guidance into one place and is intended to set out clearer expectations (including best practice examples) to help schemes achieve better data management.
Action:Review the guidance and consider whether your scheme is complying with TPR's expectations.
Autumn Budget—pensions announcements
The chancellor announced in herautumn Budgetthe introduction from April 6, 2029 of an annual cap of GBP2,000 on the amount of pension contributions that are exempt from National Insurance Contributions (NICs) through salary sacrifice.Draft legislationhas been published on this. The Budget also announced changes to earlier proposals to bring pensions into the scope of inheritance tax (updates to the previous draft legislationhave been published).
Action: Employers operating salary sacrifice may want to review these arrangements. Keep a watching brief on inheritance tax changes.
A number of changes are being made to family leave, including introducingnew entitlements to paternity leave on the death of the mother/adopter of a childandchanging the criteria for parentaland paternity leave.
Action:We expect the changes to flow through automatically in most scheme rules, but schemes and employers should make sure family leave policies and procedures reflect these updates.
CDC regulations and consultation
Regulationswill come into force on July 31, 2026 allowing unconnected employers to participate in Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) arrangements (where investments are held in, and benefits paid from, a collective fund, providing an unguaranteed target annual income). TPR is alsoconsultingon a new code of practice that will replace the existing CDC code, to make it suitable for these new schemes. This follows aconsultationon allowing transfers into a CDC scheme at retirement, which could provide a decumulation option in line with the forthcoming guided retirement framework.
Action:Consider whether CDC could be of interest to your scheme, in particular in light of upcoming guided retirement requirements.
The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has published afactsheetfor members on what happens when a pension has been overpaid. TPO is asking schemes to share this information with members.
Action:Check whether administrators are updating processes to provide this information.
- The government has launched aconsultation on trusteeship and governance, looking at various issues including trustee appointment and tenure, accreditation, professional trustees, and how to improve administration. The deadline for responses is March 6, 2026.
- The FCA and TPR have published ajoint paperconsulting on the proposed framework enabling assessment and comparison of value for money in DC arrangements. The consultation closes on March 8, 2026.
- The pensions minister has announced that he intends to consult on legislation that will allow the government to develop statutory guidance for trustees on their fiduciary duties, aimed at supporting trustees in considering factors including systemic risks (such as climate change) and members' standards of living.
- TheData (Use and Access) Act (DUA Act)has received Royal Assent. Changes include helpful tweaks to deadlines for responding to data subject access requests and new requirements around handling data protection complaints. Some parts of the Act are in force but further regulations setting out details and bringing the remainder of the Act into force are awaited.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
