Three things we learned today

Retirement Planner’s round up of the top pension stories today.

Auto-enrolment dates pushed back for some small firms

The government has proposed changes to pension reform which will give smaller employers more time to prepare for auto-enrolment than previously planned.

Guidance for employers issued on 9 August by the Pensions Regulator (TPR) says smaller employers who share Pay As You Earn (PAYE) schemes with other businesses will have their staging dates pushed back by as much as 23 months.

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HMRC opens applications for fixed pension protection

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) last night published the application for fixed protection for the new lifetime allowance (LTA) on pension contributions.

From April 2011, the LTA on pension contributions changed from £1.8m to £1.5m. The annual allowance on contributions was also cut from £225,000 to £50,000.

Fixed protection means investors who are likely to exceed the £1.5m LTA will be protected from punitive tax charges if their fund grows up to £1.8m.

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Pension deficits hit £67.3bn July

Deficits of schemes monitored by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) worsened last month, increasing from £8.3bn in June to £67.3bn at the end of July.

The funding ratio for the 6,533 schemes in the PPF 7800 Index fell from 99.2% to 93.7%, with total assets at £1001.4bn and liabilities at £1068.7bn.

Out of these, 4,684 schemes were in deficit and 1,849 schemes in surplus.

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