Pensions Act 1995
Encyclopedia
The Pensions Act 1995 is a piece of United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...

 to improve the running of pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...

 schemes.

Background

Following the death of Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...

 it became clear that he had embezzled
Fraud
In criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...

 a large amount of money from the pension fund of Mirror Group Newspapers. As a result of this a review was established to look into ways that the running of pension schemes could be improved. The end result was the Pensions Act 1995.

Overview

The main features of the Act included:
  • The establishment of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority;
  • The Minimum funding requirement
    Minimum funding requirement
    The Minimum Funding Requirement was a part of United Kingdom legislation in the Pensions Act 1995, and was introduced on 6 April 1997. The Pensions Act 2004 abolishes the MFR replaces it with new "statutory funding objective"; this came into force on 30 December 2005 for all pension schemes with...

     to ensure that all pension schemes had a minimum amount of money;
  • A compensation fund for pension schemes in the event of fraud;
  • Protection for existing pension scheme benefits so that they couldn't be reduced in the future without member consent having been obtained;
  • A requirement for pension schemes to have member nominated trustees;
  • Greater disclosure of information to members;
  • The introduction of clear documentation showing what should be paid into a scheme, and monitoring of those contributions;
  • A minimum rate of increases to apply to pension earned after the date on which the Act came into force, once in payment.


Many of the features introduced by the Act were abolished or amended by the Pensions Act 2004
Pensions Act 2004
The Pensions Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to improve the running of pension schemes.-Background:In the years following the introduction of the Pensions Act 1995, it was widely perceived that it was failing to offer the protection to pension scheme members that had...

.

External links

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