The Department for Work and Pensions is consulting on regulations that would see schemes required to send simpler annual benefit statements to their members from April next year.

On the go: The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has called on the government to introduce legislation underpinning a new set of product, communication and governance standards to build on pension freedoms and provide greater support for savers at retirement.

Industry reaction to the government’s new consultation on pension scams and transfers have been far from unanimous, with many welcoming the intention but warning of the potential for thousands of legitimate transfers to be needlessly blocked and delayed.

On the go: BT and the trustee of the BT Pension Scheme have agreed to plug £2bn of the scheme’s £7.9bn deficit through an asset-backed funding arrangement secured against the company’s EE business.

Podcast: RisCura investment consultant Lars Hagenbuch and SEI Investments director Cyprian Njamma discuss the low exposure to Chinese assets within UK pension schemes, in an episode also covering Covid-19 mortality data and the Pensions Regulator’s proposed asset information reform.

Podcast: RisCura investment consultant Lars Hagenbuch and SEI Investments director Cyprian Njamma discuss the low exposure to Chinese assets within UK pension schemes, in an episode also covering Covid-19 mortality data and the Pensions Regulator’s proposed asset information reform.

This week – New public sector pensions bill to implement McCloud, FRC fines accountancy firm for ‘pervasive failures’, FirstGroup’s pension black hole solution, and FCA’s illiquid fund proposal for DC schemes.

On the go: The Cost Transparency Initiative has recorded a 23 per cent increase in uptake during the past year, with 79 per cent of pension schemes now making use of its framework.

A chartered accountancy firm and one of its partners have been slapped with a hefty fine for “pervasive failures” in the manner in which they conducted an audit of Associated British Engineering, which included shortcomings in the audit of the company’s defined benefit pensions scheme liabilities.

On the go: The government has announced a new bill intended to push ahead with the implementation of the McCloud remedy.