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Welcome to your weekly update from the A&O Shearman Pensions team, covering all the latest legal and regulatory developments in the world of workplace pensions.
Summary
- TPR calls for responses to the DWP's consultation on transfer checks by July 21, 2026.
- The government has committed to reviewing terminal illness access rules for pension savings, though no timeline has been set.
- TPR's annual report shows good progress by the regulator across most areas, while highlighting the fast-evolving pensions landscape.
- The Pensions Dashboards Programme has published its integration test pack.
TPR encourages responses to transfer consultation
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published a blog post urging trustees, providers and administrators to respond to the DWP's consultation on strengthening and streamlining transfer processes. TPR highlights the role of trustees and administrators in preventing fraud and therefore the importance of hearing their views on the proposals.
Responses to the consultation are due by July 21, 2026.
Government to review access to pensions for terminally ill
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury has confirmed that the government will review the rules on allowing access to pension savings in cases of terminal illness, saying that the current definition for when someone with a terminal illness can access their pension savings is clearly outdated. He noted that “while the current rules are intended to provide flexibility, the government recognises that the permissive nature of these rules means that individuals may experience varying hurdles to access depending on their scheme”. Consideration will be given to the criteria for someone with a terminal illness being able to access their pension savings. No timing was given for the review.
TPR annual report and accounts
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its Annual Report and Accounts 2025–26, commenting that it is operating in a rapidly evolving landscape shaped by developments such as consolidation, increasing scale and upcoming changes in the Pension Schemes Act 2026. The report analyses TPR’s performance against various objectives set out in its corporate strategy and corporate plan, including ensuring that employers’ compliance with automatic enrolment duties remains high; ensuring schemes are well run and offer good outcomes and value; and driving innovation, efficiency and regulatory excellence, whilst minimising the regulatory burden on schemes. TPR’s performance is given a green rating in the majority of areas.
Read the annual report and accounts.
Dashboards reporting standards integration test pack
The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has published a document giving an overview of the mandatory dashboards integration testing phase. This testing must be performed by every organisation connecting directly to the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) pre-production environment, to confirm that they are successfully integrated with the central digital architecture and compliant with PDP reporting standards. Providers are allocated an integration testing slot on a first come, first served basis.
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