7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.
In this 7 Days
- Pension Schemes Bill amendments include changes to address Virgin Media
- PDP blog on connection progress
Pension Schemes Bill amendments include changes to address Virgin Media
The Government published a list of amendments to the Pension Schemes Bill on 1 September 2025 which includes changes to address issues arising from the Virgin Media decision. The new clauses are intended to provide for the retrospective validation of past alterations to salary-related contracted out occupational pension schemes where certain conditions are met. However, alterations whose validity was in issue in legal proceedings commenced on or before 5 June 2025 (the date the Government announced that it would take legislative action) will be outside the scope of remediation.
PDP blog on connection progress
On 27 August 2025, PDP published a blog to share the latest progress on connection and an outline of improvements that have been made to the process.
As at August 2025, 13 industry participants have completed their connection journey, while 19 have successfully passed through integration testing.
PDP have closely tracked progress and gathered “valuable insights” to implement changes to “benefit those yet to connect”. These insights have led to updates to guidance and supporting materials, and a change in PDP’s operational processes.
PDP is now moving into the next phase of development, consumer testing of the MoneyHelper pensions dashboard.
Pension providers and schemes should continue to connect in line with the staged timetable in DWP guidance. As a reminder, this is:
| Type | Connect by | |
| DC master trusts (20,000 or more members) | 30 April 2025 | |
| FCA regulated operators of personal pension schemes, stakeholder pension schemes, retirement annuity contracts, pension buy-out contract, “section 32” policy or freestanding AVCs (5,000 or more members) | 30 April 2025 | |
| Hybrid schemes and DB schemes (20,000 or more members) | 31 May 2025 | |
| DC schemes used for automatic enrolment (5,000 or more members) | 31 May 2025 | |
| Remaining large schemes (1000 or more members) | Between 30 June 2025 and 30 November 2025 | |
| Public service pension schemes | 31 October 2025 | |
| Medium schemes (100 to 999 members) | Between 31 January 2026 and 30 September 2026 |
The blog also reiterates the message from PDP’s most recent progress report that “there will be no regulatory intervention for those unable to meet their ‘connect by’ date solely due to their dependence on an industry participant who is yet to connect.”
