The Financial Assistance Scheme
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Consultation on the draft Financial Assistance Scheme and Pension Protection Fund (Valuation, Revaluation and Indexation Amendments) Regulations 2011
On 12 August 2010 the Government published a consultation document in respect of the draft Financial Assistance Scheme and Pension Protection Fund (Valuation, Revaluation and Indexation Amendments) Regulations 2011.
On 8 July 2010, the Minister of State for Pensions, Steve Webb MP, announced that the Government intend to use the consumer prices index (CPI) for statutory minimum revaluation and indexation for occupational pension schemes and for payments made by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and the Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS). These draft regulations are intended to deliver some of these changes to FAS and PPF rules.
The consultation seeks views on the detail of this proposal and will end on 3 November 2010.
- FAS and Pension Protection Fund (Valuation, Revaluation and Indexation Amendments) Regulations 2011 – consultation – 12 August 2010
Background
The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) offers help to some people who have lost out on their pension because:
- they were a member of an under-funded defined benefit scheme that started to wind-up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005, and either:
- their scheme began to wind-up and did not have enough money to pay members’ benefits, and
- the employer cannot pay the shortfall because it is insolvent, no longer exist or no longer has to meet its commitment to pay its debt to the pension scheme: or
- they were a member of an under-funded defined-benefit scheme that started to wind up after 5 April 2005 but before 22 December 2008 and is ineligible for help from the Pension Protection Fund because the sponsoring employer became insolvent before 6 April 2005.
The FAS is managed by Board of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a statutory corporation established under the provisions of the Pensions Act 2004 which is accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
The FAS is administered by the FAS Operational Unit (FAS OU). It makes payments to top up scheme benefits to eligible members of schemes that are winding-up or have wound-up.
Current information on the Financial Assistance Scheme for pension scheme members and pension professionals is now to be found on the Pension Protection Fund FAS website.
Our Timeline of events shows the developments in the FAS since it was announced in 2004 and Legislation summarises relevant Regulations as they came into force.
