7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday mornings. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.
In this 7 Days
PASA publishes guided retirement guidance
On 7 September 2026, PASA published new guidance designed to help trustees, administrators and providers begin assessing how ready they are to deliver guided retirement in practice. The guidance focuses on the operational changes likely to be required to support guided retirement and the default pensions developed within it.
While the revised timetable for guided retirement (implementation is now expected from 2029), gives the industry additional time to prepare, PASA cautions that the scale of the operational change involved means this time will need to be used carefully.
Preparing for the new framework could require schemes and administrators to redesign processes, enhance technology, improve or collect additional data, train teams and establish new governance arrangements, all while continuing to deliver business-as-usual administration and other major industry change.
According to David Fairs, Chair of PASA, “[t]here’s an important balance to strike. The industry shouldn’t build final solutions before the requirements are sufficiently clear, but neither should it wait to understand its capabilities and the scale of change which may be needed. Starting readiness work now will put schemes in a much stronger position as the framework develops”.
TPR publishes new enforcement approach
In 2025, TPR consulted on a new approach to enforcement. On 8 September 2026, it published a response to the consultation, alongside its new enforcement approach.
TPR’s new approach is intended to mark “a deliberate move towards smarter, collaborative and risk-based interventions that deliver real-world results”. The high-level, principles-based framework is intended to allow TPR to “respond to risks faster and act earlier to prevent harm”. Detailed requirements and scheme-specific expectations will sit in TPR’s underlying enforcement policies and guidance, which will be reviewed and developed as new legislation and regulations come into force.
TPR intends to implement the approach through a phased programme of work. This will include a review of its internal processes, policies and governance, as well as its externally published enforcement policies and guidance, starting with high-impact areas. Ultimately, TPR plans to develop an outcomes-aligned set of metrics to measure the success of enforcement activity and will continue to engage with its regulatory partners and stakeholders as it progresses.
