Legislation

The restructure of the Royal Mail pension plan is essential to address its £8.4bn "huge and volatile" deficit but member protection remains "paramount", the government says.

Members retiring on incapacity grounds could face a hefty tax bill if they fall into a gap between scheme rules and new exemptions from the annual allowance test, a lawyer warns.

The government has set out its intention to "transform pension saving" with the launch of a green paper consultation on a flat-rate state pension.

UK - The government could be forced to subsidise the National Employment Savings Trust to the tune of £379m ($606m), European Commission documents show.

US - California Governor Edmund Brown has proposed a set of seven bills aimed at eliminating public-employee pension abuses in the state.

The Finance Bill has aligned default pension input periods with the tax year so that it ends on 5 April looking ahead, Sackers says.

Measures to accelerate the equalisation of the state pension age have been slammed after amendments to the Pensions Bill to ease their impact were defeated in the Lords.

UK - Pensions minister Steve Webb has confirmed that a single flat-rate pension is one of a range of options that will be explored in a green paper to be published shortly.

Pensions minister Steve Webb has confirmed that a single flat-rate pension is one of a range of options that will be explored in a green paper to be published shortly.

Lord Hutton's recommendations for public sector pension reform have been backed by the Treasury, with Chancellor George Osborne saying there would be no "cherry picking" from his proposals.