TPR outlines busy agenda over next two years

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The Pensions Regulator has outlined its corporate plan for the next two years, saying it will focus on pension scams, measuring the value for money defined contribution schemes offer, and support schemes to become dashboard-ready. It is also getting ready to regulate superfunds and collective defined contribution schemes. Is the post-Covid regulatory rush sustainable?  
 
Over the next two years, the regulator will help the Department for Work and Pensions get dashboards off the ground by launching a programme of education about the steps schemes need to take in order to comply, including what data they have to prepare, and to make schemes show if they offer value for money to savers.
 
TPR said its five strategic priorities are: 

 
The regulator will also measure and monitor the progress of meeting 19 ‘saver outcomes’ through a new set of key indicators . 
 

Data, DB, dashboards and more 

 
Among others, the regulator has said it is setting up a digital, data and technology directorate, hoping that being more data-led and digitally enabled will allow it to regulate more effectively and efficiently. 
 
It also plans to launch its delayed second consultation on a new defined benefit funding code this autumn, and for the code to be in force from September next year. Changes in the new code will be forward-looking, it explained, so only schemes with valuation effective dates on or after its commencement date will be affected. 
 
The Pensions Regulator has had to navigate a tricky few years that included corporate scandals, Brexit and a global pandemic, but there is a recognition that uncertainty and upheaval could be here for a while. 
 
“We can’t predict how the challenges of Covid-19, the conflict in Ukraine, the cost of living and climate change will play out in the long term, but it is vital that we and industry are prepared for heightened volatility,” said chief executive Charles Counsell. 
 
He added that TPR will continue to welcome innovation and work with its partners to meet the government’s “ambitious” pensions dashboards legislative timetable, with first schemes due to connect from April next year. The regulator will also “embrace new scheme models while overseeing the regulation of superfunds and collective defined contribution”, Counsell added. 
 

D&I and auto-enrolment reforms in the offing 

 
Despite a busy agenda, the regulator is keen to continue its work on improving trustee diversity and inclusion to enable better decision-making. TPR chair Sarah Smart said the regulator publish an action plan setting out how it intends to support this development. 
 
Smart added that TPR will also be working with government and industry to improve equality in saving. “To this end we support the 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review proposals which aim to open workplace pension saving to more people,” she said.  
 
The Automatic Enrolment Review 2017 recommended removing the lower earnings threshold and reducing the minimum age to 18 from currently 22. The government agreed to do this in the “mid-2020s”, as well as to look at how to improve pension saving among the self-employed, but it has yet to set out a concrete timetable for reforms. 
 

What are your thoughts about the regulator’s strategic plan?

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