Companies relaxed about tax law changes

Research by Aon Hewitt, seen exclusively by schemeXpert.com , saw 56% say no, when asked “will you consider altering the benefit design of your scheme”, following the decision the tax free allowance will fall from £255,000 to £50,000. A third answered yes and 11% did not know.

Of the 300 respondents, 39% said between 10 and 100 members of their schemes would be affected by the changes, 38% claimed fewer than 10, with just 9% saying more than 100, and 13% did not know.

The bulk (59%) also felt preparing for the changes, which kick in on April 6, would be “challenging”, but not insurmountable, while 23% were “not confident” of adequately communicating the changes to members in time.

A further 3% saying they had “no hope” of managing this, although 15% were “very confident” of getting the message across.

Tony Baily (pictured), head of Aon Hewitt’s pension taxation team, said: “It was obvious from the responses that these tax changes pose substantial challenges for companies.

“Given the number survey respondents indicated they had between 10 and 100 members impacted by the tax changes, it's clear that this is not a trivial task. 

“Companies need to get policies, communication and administration support lined up to deal with a change of this magnitude. And remember – this is their key talent that is being affected.

“I was quite surprised that over half of the pensions professionals on  our call said they had no intention of changing their scheme benefit  design."

Aon Hewitt principle June Grant added: “With a handful of cases you may be able to deal with ad-hoc requests but for larger numbers a more structured approach will be required.”