Pension scheme trustees suspended by regulator to protect £30 million of assets

24/07/10
Pensions

A hundred pension scheme trustees, dealing with defined contribution (DC) plans, were suspended between 2009-2010 by the Pensions Regulator.

Over £30 million of assets were safeguarded by the suspensions issued by the non-departmental public body created in 2005 to prevent companies from abusing their pension schemes.

The annual report stated that four individual trustees and four corporate trustees were also prohibited during the course of the year, illustrating its commitment to protecting the interests of pension contributors.

Acting Chief Executive Bill Galvin said, “2010-11 looks likely to be our busiest year since our inception in 2005. We are involved in an unprecedented number of difficult and complex cases and are seeing a further increase in potential avoidance activity”.

He continued: “Vital work continues on designing and building a robust compliance regime to ensure that employers meet their new duties from 2012. We are also focusing on risks faced by DC schemes which will be the vehicle into which most new members will be auto-enrolled, and will be setting out our thinking in more detail later in the year”.

The body aims to protect the benefits of members of work-based pension schemes and to reduce the risk of situations, such as scheme insolvencies, which lead to the payment of compensation from the Pension Protection Fund.