Section 36: Fraud compensation
Section 36 provides a regulation-making power enabling the Department to modify Articles 165 to 170 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005, which relate to fraud compensation. The regulations will make amendments to modify how fraud compensation under that Order applies to Master Trusts and other pension schemes to which all or some of the provisions of Part 1 (by virtue of section 40) of the Act apply.
Articles 165 to 170 of the Pensions (Northern Ireland) Order 2005 enable fraud compensation payments to be made to occupational pension schemes where certain conditions are met. These conditions include that:
the value of the scheme’s assets has been reduced and there are reasonable grounds for believing this was due to dishonesty; and
the employer has gone out of business or is unlikely to continue as a going concern.
The Department proposes to use regulations to make adjustments to fraud compensation to make it more suitable for Master Trusts.
Section 36 also allows these modifications to apply to other types of occupational pension schemes should they become covered by the Master Trust authorisation scheme by virtue of section 40.
Subsection (2) provides that any regulations made under this section are subject to negative resolution.