The Pensions Regulator’s eighth annual scheme governance survey has been published, and includes new information on action taken by schemes to tackle pension liberation fraud.
You can view the survey and accompanying technical report in scheme governance surveys.
This year a number of new questions were asked to reflect changes in the pensions landscape, which also included whether schemes are being used for automatic enrolment.
Key findings on pension liberation fraud include:
Large schemes are more likely to be aware of pension liberation fraud (99%) than small schemes (88%).
Among the schemes aware of pension liberation fraud, eight in ten (78%) schemes have processes in place to combat pension liberation fraud, with one in seven having suspected such activity in transfer requests.
At an overall level, two in three schemes (64%) are already discussing pension liberation fraud at trustee meetings, with around half using the transfer pack insert (56%) and action pack (49%) provided by the regulator.
Key findings on automatic enrolment include:
- Over a quarter of schemes surveyed (28%) are being used or planned to be used for automatic enrolment, and these schemes are more likely to demonstrate a number of positive governance traits.
- These schemes are more likely to have documented internal controls (82% compared to 71%) and are more likely to receive formal reports on administration standards at least quarterly (56% compared to 40%).
The regulator’s executive director for defined contribution (DC), governance and administration Andrew Warwick-Thompson said:
“Good governance sits at the heart of a well-run scheme and it is encouraging to see that schemes that are used, or plan to be used, for automatic enrolment are more likely to display a number of good governance and administration traits. However, there are still many areas where improvements can be made across the board.
“Larger schemes continue to perform better than smaller schemes and we will be working with the industry to raise standards and improve the chances of members receiving a good outcome at retirement.
“It’s encouraging that many schemes are taking action to mitigate the risk of pension liberation fraud and including our scorpion material. We will be updating this material later in the year and want its use to become the norm.”
The regulator will be publishing research results around the presence of its DC features in schemes, including master trusts, in the coming weeks.
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