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Pensions Act 2004

Summary

332.This part establishes a new non-departmental public body, called the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (and referred to in the Act and in these notes as “the Board”).

333.The Board has two main functions:

  • it will administer the Pension Protection Fund from which compensation will be paid to members of defined benefit and hybrid occupational pension schemes which are underfunded and no longer have a solvent employer, and where the scheme has insufficient assets to pay benefits at a level equal to the amount of compensation the Pension Protection Fund would provide;

  • it will administer the Fraud Compensation Fund from which compensation will be paid to defined benefit and money purchase occupational pension schemes in cases of fraud and misappropriation of scheme assets. Similar functions were previously exercised by the Pensions Compensation Board, which is abolished under Part 9 of this Act.

334.Part 2 also makes provision for charging four types of levy in respect of occupational pension schemes:

  • pension protection levy (which will include both a scheme based and risk based levy) (see sections 174 to 181);

  • administration levy (to cover the set-up and ongoing administration costs of the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (see section 117);

  • fraud compensation levy (to be paid by both defined-benefit and money purchase schemes) (see section 189);

  • levy to fund the expenditure of the Ombudsman for the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (see section 209).

335.The Board of the Pension Protection Fund will have a procedure for dealing with disputes and complaints of maladministration. This will include an internal dispute resolution procedure, followed if still disputed by referral to the Ombudsman for the Board of the Pension Protection Fund (the “PPF Ombudsman). There is a separate right of appeal (on points of law only) to the High Court if the dispute is still unresolved following the PPF Ombudsman’s determination.

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Explanatory Notes

Text created by the government department responsible for the subject matter of the Act to explain what the Act sets out to achieve and to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified. Explanatory Notes were introduced in 1999 and accompany all Public Acts except Appropriation, Consolidated Fund, Finance and Consolidation Acts.

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