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

TPR speech at Sackers DC Conference

In a speech given at the Sackers DC Conference on 1 October 2026, Emma Douglas, the Chair of TPR, set out TPR’s vision for “a pensions system that provides a sustainable income in retirement”.

The new VFM framework is “one of the most important levers to affect outcomes”. In relation to guided retirement, TPR expects that getting members into “the right cohort so that they are offered a suitable default pension” will be a “joint effort between the trustee who is designing the defaults and the member who has the information about their own circumstances”, and that members answering some key questions will enable better outcomes. TPR will continue to work with the DWP and the FCA on the communications to support this.

Revised draft dashboards reporting standards published

A revised draft (version 2.3) of the reporting standards for pensions dashboards was published on 2 October 2026, making some clarificatory changes to the previous version 2.2.

The reporting standards version 2.0 was approved by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in March 2025. This version will continue to be legally binding until a new one is formally approved. The updated draft version includes the technical requirements for the routine reporting of data via APIs to MaPS and is expected to come into force on 1 March 2027, subject to approval.

Plans to change the state pension triple lock from 2030

On 29 September 2030, the Prime Minister announced plans to maintain the state pension triple lock until April 2030. From then, it will be adjusted so the state pension rises each year by the greater of inflation or 2.5%, and by more if required to maintain its value relative to average earnings.

Pensions UK research on the “retirement savings challenge”

On 28 September 2026, Pensions UK published the results of surveys of employers and working-age adults showing that “the public recognise the scale of the retirement savings challenge and are not confident they are saving enough to maintain their standard of living in retirement”. It encourages the Government to set out a “gradual, predictable roadmap” for increasing automatic enrolment contributions.