Pensions News
PENSIONS NEWS
The Secretariat
The month of March saw changes in the Secretariat’s staff with Thursday the 20th being Richard Wiscombe’s last day with the P.N.P.F. before staring his new job up in London. Read the rest of this entry »
PENSIONS NEWS
PENSIONS NEWS
The Secretariat
Buckhurst House
In August of this year the lease on Buckhurst House came up for renewal and I am very pleased to say that the Trustees agreed to the new terms and that the upheaval of another move has been avoided for the foreseeable future. Read the rest of this entry »
Pension News 04/07
PENSIONS NEWS
The Secretariat
Well, both Richard Wiscombe and I are still located at Buckhurst House in Sevenoaks. The lease comes up for renewal later this year and I am very pleased to say that the Trustees have agreed that we can stay, a Read the rest of this entry »
Pension News 01/07
PENSION NEWS
Richard Williamson Chairman PNPF Trustees
As a result of comments from members Richard has identified a need to explain the role of trustees and hopes that the following will clarify the key issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Pension News 10/06
PENSION NEWS
The Secretariat
Those of you who ring the Secretariat may notice that there has been a change to the staffing levels. As part of an ongoing reduction in costs the Trustees decided to make the part-time position of Secretarial/Administrative Assistant redundant. This has resulted in Vicki Apps leaving the Secretariat and taking up a life of leisure with more time to spend enjoying her numerous hobbies.
This leaves Richard and me to carry on with the day to day running of the Fund and the reduction in staff should not affect the standard of service you have been receiving.
Trustees
There have been changes in the Trustee Board, as well, with Stewart Lee (Forth pilot) resigning from the Board and retiring from pilotage. Tony Anderton (
On the Port side David Holmes has retired as an Alternate and Graeme Clark,
Investment Strategy
The Trustees are continuing to implement their investment strategy with the last £10m tranche disinvested from the equities portfolio and transferred to Quellos at the end of October. This completed the second phase of the strategy and the Trustees will be discussing the third phase at their November quarterly meeting.
Summary of Funding Statement
In accordance with current legislation and Government dictates the Summary of Funding Statement was sent out to all P.N.P.F. members on
Benefit changes
Flexible Retirement
From
· You must be over age 50 (age 55 from B2010)
· Once your PNPF pension has been put into payment you will not be allowed to continue to contribute to the PNPF or accrue any future pensionable service. Your entitlement to death in service and ill health benefits will also cease.
· You must have the consent of your Competent Harbour Authority.
The Association’s Payment Proposal
The Trustees have been in consultation with the Association of Participating Bodies in the PNPF (the “Association”) regarding the Fund’s level of funding. This culminated in the Association putting forward a voluntary payment proposal to the Trustees. The proposal has the support of the majority, but not all, of the CHAs with employed and self-employed active pilots, is voluntary and is not legally binding on either the Trustees or the CHAs.
Following actuarial and legal advice the Trustees agreed to accept the Association’s proposal, which is retrospective from
News in General
Disclosure Regulations
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced that the draft regulations which were due to come into force in October have been dropped. The new regulations would have introduced annual benefit statements for defined benefit (DB) schemes (the PNPF already provides these) and the concept of information disclosure within a
“reasonable time”.
Age Discrimination
New laws covering age discrimination are to be postponed for two months and will now come into effect on
Age Regulations
Judicial review proceedings have been commenced by Heyday, on behalf of Age Concern, to challenge the Government’s introduction of a national default age of 65.
Contributions up, Membership down
A recent survey by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) reveals that employer pension contributions rates in the private sector are increasing while the number of members of schemes is falling.
Pensions experiment
A recent experiment challenged 26 households, aged between 30 and 50, to live off the equivalent disposable income today’s pensioners received if they relied on the state pension. All but one household, overspent their state pension allowance by 158 per cent. The majority spending their weekly entitlement within three days.
Debbie Marten
Pension News 07/06
PENSION NEWS
THE SECRETARIAT
Well
Rules & Explanatory Brochure
Benefit changes arising from the 2004 valuation as well as tax simplification have meant major revisions to the Explanatory Brochures and the Rules. We hope to be in a position to provide pilots with updated copies in the near future.
Annual Report & Accounts 2005
The Trustees Annual Report & Accounts for the year ending
Investment Strategy
The Trustees are in the process of implementing the investment strategy, as recommended by the Investment Consultant, following his review of the Fund’s asset allocation. To this end on
Once the value adding assets are in place the Trustees will be turning their attention to the bonds and equity managers.
Summary of Funding Statement
By no later than
The challenge for the Trustees will be to put the information in a context that is user friendly and easy to understand.
Government White Paper
In 2002 the Government established a Pensions Commission, headed by Adair Turner, to investigate the existing ‘voluntarist’ approach to retirement saving in the
The first report set out the results of the Commission’s investigation into retirement savings. It stated that unless people were prepared to work longer, pay more tax and save more they would have to accept poorer retirements.
The Commission’s second report set out their proposals of how the three-pronged approach – save more, pay more tax or work longer – should be balanced. The third report was a short reply to some of the criticisms levelled at the second report. In its White Paper, Security in Retirement – towards a new pensions system, published on
State second pension (S2P) will be a flatrate weekly pension payment of £60 by 2030.
Contracting-out for defined contribution schemes will be abolished.
The proportion of pensioners on meanstesting is estimated to fall from 45% to 33%.
State pension age for women will rise from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020. There will be further rises for both men and women beginning with an increase from 65 to 66 in 2024, then again to 67 in 2044 and finally to 68 in 2046. Employees will be automatically enrolled into the National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) at the age of 22 and will pay 4% of salary. Employers must contribute 3% while the Government will contribute 1% in the form of tax relief. The number of years of National Insurance Contributions (NIC) needed to qualify for a full basic state pension will be cut to 30 (currently women need 39 years of contributions while men need 44). Reduction of burdens on schemes by bringing forward legislation to allow schemes to convert guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) rights into scheme benefits.
Age Discrimination Regulations
On 1 October 2006 The Age
Discrimination Regulations come into effect. The impact on occupational pension schemes is that there will now be a national default retirement age of 65, making compulsory retirement below 65 unlawful unless objectively justified. Employees will now have the right to request to work beyond 65 or any other retirement age set by the company. The employer has a duty to consider such requests.
Working Past Age 65
The Government’s White Paper has restored the link between the basic state pension and rises in average earnings which was broken in 1980 by Margaret Thatcher, but to fund this change the state pension age will now rise to 68. A recent survey carried out on 243
Given the results of the survey you have to wonder if the Government really knows what Joe Public wants.
Debbie Marten
Pension News 04/06
PENSION NEWS
THE SECRETARIAT
February saw the handover of the Chairmanship of the Trustee Board from Ports to Pilots and Richard Williamson, a
Aside from this little has changed at the Secretariat as we are still working hard trying to cope with all the changes arising from the Pensions and Finance Acts 2004 and the triennial valuation as well as the impact these will have on our systems, understanding of pensions and communicating it simply but sufficiently to members. Hopefully by the time you read this the worst of it will be over and we will have managed to have communicated and coped with all the changes successfully.
VALUATION AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2004
It is beginning to feel like that by the time the ramifications of this valuation are finally done and dusted it will be time for the 2007 one to start.
The finalisation of the results of the triennial valuation was considered an appropriate time to review the factors used by the PNPF when calculating the various benefit options available to members. The two factors of particular relevance to members are:
· The Early Retirement Factor (ERF)
· Commutation Factor
It is the Fund’s practice to reduce a member’s pension if taken before normal retirement age. This is because it is expected that the member’s pension will be paid for a longer period of time and thus the funds underpinning the pension will be invested for a shorter period of time. The factors are designed to be cost neutral to the pension being given up. At their February meeting the Trustees agreed to adopt the recommendation of the fund’s actuary and these factors became effective on
The Fund’s commutation factor had been 10 since the beginning of 1991, but the Trustees were advised by the actuary that although administratively easy and simple for members to understand it was, he felt, inequitable. It was agreed that age related factors that reflected the differences in the expected term of pension payments and thus the value of the pension being given up would be adopted as from 28.02.2006. The revised factors are:
Ages Factor
65, 64 12
63, 62 13
61, 60 14
59, 58 15
57, 56, 55 16
PENSIONS AND FINANCE ACTS 2004
Pension regulations continued to change during the course of 2005. Those effective from April 2005 were covered in my article of April 2005. Those that have come into force since are:
From December 2005
The new scheme funding and investment requirements came into force on 30 December 2005. The main requirement of the investment regulations is the Statement of Investment Principles (SIP), which the Trustees must review once every three years and without delay after any significant change in investment policy. The Trustees must also consult with employers on the content of their SIP. The SIP must cover:
· The kinds of investment held.
· Balance between the investments
· The ways in which risks are measured and managed.
· Expected return
· Realisation of investments
· Extent to which social, environmental or ethical considerations are taken into account.
Scheme Specific Funding replaces the Minimum Funding Requirement (MFR)
for valuations occurring after 23rd
September 2005.
It now falls to the Trustees to decide both which actuarial method is used (provided that it is one of the accrued benefits methods) and also the value of the various economic, financial and demographic assumptions that are to be applied.
From 6 April 2006
Scheme Rule Changes
Employers will be required to consult members if schemes are closed or changed for the future.
Cash Transfers or Refunds
Members who have at least 3 months but no more than 24 months qualifying service must be offered either a transfer payment based on the underlying benefits or a refund of their own contributions.
Benefit Changes
Members have already been notified of the changes arising out of the valuation and tax simplification so I do not propose utilising space to reiterate what members already know. If you have not received a letter please let me know and I will ensure that a further copy is posted off to you.
CHANGES TO PNPF RULES AND EXPLANATORY BROCHURES
Amended Explanatory Brochures and PNPF Rules will be sent out to members as soon as they have been reprinted.
BENEFIT STATEMENTS
Members should have, by now, received their annual benefit statement for 2005. Apologies for the delay in getting them out but changes in benefits have meant that these statements have had to be manually calculated and checked. Your patience during this process was greatly appreciated.
BUDGET MARCH 2006
On
The general points of interest are:
TAX ALLOWANCES
Single Person
Aged under 65 £5035
Aged 65-74 £7280
Aged 75+ £7420
Aged income limit £19,500
Married Couple’s Allowance
Aged under 75 £6065
Aged 75 and over £6135
Age income limit £20,100
Blind Person Allowance £1610
Income Tax Bands
Starting rate 10% 0 - £2150
Basic rate 22% £2015 - £33,300
Higher rate 40% Over £33,300
Debbie Marten
Pension News 01/06
PENSION NEWS
This is a summary of my presentation given to the UKMPA at their annual conference held in
PNPF 2005
Last November when I said that we would hit the floor running in 2005 I was not mistaken although not all our running was in straight lines and occasionally we ran in circles and sometimes it felt like we were disappearing up the proverbial. 2005 has seen meetings, changes and loads of training just in case we were getting bored.
Considering the amount of time the Trustees have had to dedicate to the Fund
this year it makes you ask: Who wants to be a Trustee?
Following Maxwell’s nose dive from his yacht pension reforms started coming through thick and fast in the form of the Pensions Act 1995, the Myners’ Review, and the Pension and Finance Acts 2004. The upshot is the role of a scheme trustee in 2006 will be unrecognisable from what it was in 1986 and even 1996. Gone are the days of meetings only lasting until lunchtime.
During the course of 2005 the Trustees
have attended 4 quarterly Trustees’ meetings, 4 meetings covering the valuation, investment strategies and training, 1 beauty parade and a subcommittee meeting twice to discuss tax simplification. In addition to the extra workload, from April 2006 the Pensions Act 2004 legally requires Trustees to know and understand the law relating to pensions and trusts, general funding and investment principles, as well as being conversant with scheme documentation. Failure to do so could result in personal liability.
In relation to the Fund the Trustees will be required to be conversant with the Trust Deed and Rules; the Statement of Investment Principles; The Statement of Funding Principles; the Annual Report and Accounts and the Scheme booklets.
In addition they must have appropriate knowledge and understanding of the law relating to pensions and trusts; the principles of funding occupational pension schemes; and the principles of investing the assets of occupational pension schemes. To assist in this The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is issuing a Code of Practice setting out the parameters of knowledge and understanding involved.
Tax Simplification
One of the subjects exercising the minds of the trustees this year was tax simplification. After much deliberations the measures the trustees have decided to adopt, from 6 April 2006, are as follows:
Additional Voluntary Contributions
From April 2006 the trustees have decided to only offer the Open Market Option to members deciding to take all or part of their AVCs as an annuity. This means the ability to purchase an additional pension from the Fund will no longer be available.
On the upside, following clarification in the 2005 Finance Act members can take 25% of the value of their benefits from each pension arrangement, meaning the AVCs can now be considered together with the main scheme benefits. In simple terms all AVCs members will be able to take at least 25% of their AVC fund as cash, and possibly all of it, to the extent that it is no more than 25% of the total value of benefits provided through the Fund.
Lifetime Allowance (LTA)
This has been touched on previously but in order to determine whether members will require Enhanced or Primary Protection Aon Consulting are carrying out an exercise to determine which members may have benefits in excess of the current LTA, or may exceed the LTA should they continue to NRA.
In addition active members have been sent, by the Secretariat, a form for completion to ensure that all your benefits are taken into account when calculating the total value of your benefits.
Pension Commencement Lump Sum
(PCLS)
I do not know why the powers that be felt the need to change the name of the taxfree cash sum, maybe they thought the Inland Revenue would leave it alone if the took away the words tax-free.
Members will now be able to take 25% of the total value of their benefits as a lump sum, although it is not really 25% that is just to confuse you. The maximum cash sum can be expressed as:
Pre Commutation Pension x 20 x 10 20 + (3 x 10) (10 being the Fund’s commutation factor).
This sum must not exceed:
º (PCLS + (Residual Pension x 20).
This is after all simplification!
Five Year Guarantee
This remains the same but will now be known as a Defined Benefits Lump Sum Death Benefit.
Flexible Retirement
The Trustees have agreed to allow members to draw their PNPF benefits whilst remaining in pilotage, with the proviso that no future benefits will accrue in the PNPF and your CHAs agreement would be necessary to avoid any manpower issues.
Children’s Pensions
Children’s pensions that become payable after 06.04.2006 will have an upper age limit of 23 if remaining in full-time education this has been reduced down from age 25 currently permitted under the Rules.
PNPF Rules
Two changes in PNPF Rules arising from the Valuation were effected in June 2005. A new Rule 14(4) allows the Trustees to seek additional funding from an employed port should they cease to have PNPF pilots and wish to cease participating in the PNPF to cover the CHAs portion of the deficit. The second is a new Rule 19(3) which apportions a member’s service between the pre 01.08.05 and post 01.08.05 retirement ages.
Pensions Act 2004
Key provisions of the Pensions Act 2004 came into force on
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) was established.
The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) was established.
The pensions Regulator (TPR) was
established in place of OPRA.
New minimum compulsory increases in pensions in payment for service after 6 April 2005 will be the lesser of 2.5% or the increase in the Retail Price Index. (This has not been adopted by the Trustees).
Armageddon (not the end of the World)
A recent survey carried out by YouGov on around 2200 people showed that while 16% knew A-Day referred to the new pension tax simplification regime, around 11% thought it was the day the world would end. A further 46% thought A-Day stood for Armistice Day and 19% said it was the day A-Level results were published. Communication is obviously not the pensions’ media forte!
Debbie Marten
Pension News 10/05
PENSION NEWS
THE SECRETARIAT
I cannot believe we are in the last quarter of 2005 with just one more trustees meeting before the end of the year and the hustle and bustle of Christmas holidays to look forward to (although some of us get a pre-Christmas practice at Thanksgiving). Still the first three quarters of 2005 proved to be very busy for the Secretariat and I have no doubt that the last quarter will be the same.
VALUATION AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2004
The 2004 triennial valuation has been presented to the trustees and like many
To address the funding deficit the
Trustees have raised the normal retirement age of Existing Members for future accrual and carried out a substantial review of the asset allocation to determine how best to take the Fund forward. Perhaps most importantly the Trustees have obtained legal advice and a QC’s opinion and are now in discussions with the Participating Bodies and the UKMPA to decide how to deal with the deficit and formulate a recovery plan.
INVESTMENT REVIEW
Following the results of the triennial valuation the Trustees commissioned a review of the investment strategy. Although formal recommendations have yet to be received from the Investment Consultant the Trustees have agreed, following consultation with the employers, to invest 10% of the Fund’s assets in Goldman Sachs’ Direct Strategies funds. These funds are targeting high performance returns without increasing the Fund’s risk.
“A-DAY” PROTECTION
In late July forms were sent to all active members of the PNPF requesting details of any other retirement benefits they may have in order to determine whether they should be seeking independent advice prior to ‘ADay’ (
TRUSTEES TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL
Next year it is back to the classroom for trustees regardless of their standing or experience. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) will require them to show an understanding of pension law and practice as well as funding and investment. It cannot be avoided as in 2007 they will be required to report to the Headmaster (TPR) on how much learning they have done. They will not, however, have to pass any exams.
NEWS IN GENERAL
With effect from
PENSIONS PROTECTION FUND (PPF)
The Pensions Protection Fund has published a guide to PPF levies for 2005/06. These levies apply to defined benefit schemes and will be in two parts:
An initial levy of £15 for each active member or pensioner (including spouses and dependants) and £5 for each deferred member.
An administrative levy based on the number of members in a scheme, ranging from £24 per member for a scheme with less than 12 members to £0.74 per member for a scheme with over 10,000 members.
THE PENSIONS REGULATOR
From
SCHEME RETURNS
At the end of June 2005 The Pensions Regulator (TPR) sent out scheme return forms to 8000 occupational pension schemes. The returns asked for basic information including the scheme type and status, membership, details about trustees and advisers, financial information and details about participating employers. The trustees had eight weeks, until the end of August, to complete and return the forms. For the PNPF it was a bit like trying to put a square peg in a round hole given the uniqueness of the Fund.
CIVIL PARTNERSHIP ACT
From
Partnership Act will come into effect. This Act will bring with it a package of rights and responsibilities very similar to the legal status of married couples. Pension schemes will be required to provide survivor’s benefits for members of civil partners. Legislation prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation will be amended so that civil partners must be treated in the same way as married couples. In addition pension sharing orders will be available for civil partnerships that end.
MONEY PURCHASE (DC) SCHEMES OUTNUMBER
FINAL SALARY (DB) SCHEMES
For the first time the number of Defined Contribution (DC) schemes has overtaken the number of still open Defined Benefit (DB) schemes according to a survey published by Hewitt Associates.
The survey covered approximately 350 schemes and showed that 32% of organisations now offer DC compared to 28% with a DB scheme that was still open. 29% have a final salary scheme closed to new entrants while the remaining 11% consisted of schemes closed to further contributions and various forms of hybrid schemes.
An alarming trend is that fewer than 50% of employees covered by DC schemes actually contribute anything themselves. This, coupled with the fact that employers almost always pay in much less than under DB schemes, means that amount of money being put aside for the next generation of pensions is falling sharply.
Debbie Marten
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