7 days


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

Clarification to HMRC’s GMP equalisation guidance

On 20 April 2022, the PLSA published a statement to help clarify HMRC’s recently published GMP equalisation guidance (see our Alert). The note addresses the tax treatment of any interest applied to a payment of arrears of pension, where the arrears have arisen as a result of GMP equalisation. The note confirms that the interest should be treated for pension tax purposes as interest paid in respect of a late payment of pension instalments, and an obligation for schemes to withhold income tax is unlikely to arise where the member is UK resident. The PLSA understands HMRC may include clarification of this issue in a future newsletter.

FCA publishes updated DB pensions transfer advice checker

The FCA published a new format pensions transfer advice checker tool on 21 April 2022, which allows members who transferred out of a DB scheme after April 2015 and had received advice from an FCA-regulated firm to check if they may have received poor advice. The tool also explains what steps an individual can take if they did receive bad advice.

Trustees sentenced for fraud offences relating to pension scams

On 22 April 2022, two trustees were sentenced for prison terms of over 10 years in total and disqualified from being company directors for 8 years, for fraud by abuse of position. The trustees were key participants in a pension liberation fraud between 2012 and 2014 where 245 members were persuaded to transfer a total of £13.7m into scam pension schemes. The sentences followed criminal proceedings issued by TPR.

PLSA ESG and Net Zero survey

The PLSA is seeking views, in a survey published on 21 April 2022, on a range of ESG issues, including net zero commitments, progress with TCFD reporting, stewardship activity and investment activity (see our ESG guides for more information). The survey closes on 11 May 2022.