Pensions Bulletin 2026/05

Gender and ethnicity pension gap – a glimmer of light?

Research published last week (and jointly commissioned by LCP, Independent Governance Group (IGG) and Smart Pension), provides a unique insight, in their own words, into how women from ethnic minority communities in Britain are making financial provision for later life.

Previous Government and industry reports have demonstrated that women have less pension wealth than men of the same age. Pension industry research reports have also suggested that men and women from Britain’s ethnic minorities tend to have lower average pension wealth than their White British counterparts. Taken together, this would suggest that at the intersection of these two groups – women from ethnic minorities – pension disadvantage could be expected to be particularly acute.

The new research explored these themes further through focus groups and interviews with more than fifty women across a range of ethnic minorities and ages. The report also discusses what more the pensions industry could be doing to improve the retirement outcomes for these groups.

Whilst the motivation for this research was to better understand the reasons for the pension disadvantages experienced by women from ethnic minorities and how best they could be addressed, the research findings offer some glimmers of hope:

• First, the relative pensions disadvantage faced by women from ethnic minorities could be starting to fall. This mainly reflects generational differences, as younger women from ethnic minorities generally have higher levels of qualification and are much more likely to be in paid work and aspire to financial independence than previous generations. 
• Second, although such women have a generally low level of knowledge about pensions and some mistrust, there is also considerable hunger for information and explanation. There was clear evidence that if these women felt they knew and understood better how pensions worked and what they could deliver, that they would be more likely to engage. 

The findings highlight the fact that the pensions industry needs a more nuanced approach principally in relation to communications, that takes account of cultural and social differences, so it can cut through, build trust and support behavioural change. There is a strong desire for accessible information as more women from ethnic minorities take ownership of their own retirement outlook, and an opportunity to capitalise on this by developing new, innovative and thoughtful ways of reaching these communities.

State Pension Age increase – Government again says no to financial compensation for 1950s-born women  

In a statement delivered to Parliament, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Pat McFadden reconfirmed the decision, made by the Government in December 2024, not to introduce a financial compensation scheme for 1950s-born women affected by the delay in sending individual letters informing them about the changes in the state pension age (see Pensions Bulletin 2024/49). The decision had been revisited following the discovery of relevant evidence from 2007 that had not formed part of the materials originally considered (see Pensions Bulletin 2025/45).

In the statement and accompanying report, the Secretary of State says that “the evidence taken as a whole, including from 2007, suggests the majority of 1950s-born women would not have read and recalled the contents of an unsolicited pensions letter, even if it had been sent earlier.” He also confirmed that the Government decided against introducing financial compensation, because it considered that would be “neither fair nor feasible and would not represent good value for taxpayers”. 

PDP proposes daily reporting of dashboard operational data 

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has launched a consultation to update its reporting standards to implement routine daily reporting of operational data to the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) via an application programming interface (API) – a set of rules and protocols that enable different software applications to communicate with each other.  

The current reporting standards cover requirements in relation to generating and reporting technical data about: 

• Coverage of relevant member records; 
• Service availability for find and view; and 
• View requests and responses, including offline calculations performed and returns of value data unavailable codes. 

The standards currently require that this data is retained so that it can be made available to MaPS on request. 

This consultation now seeks views on proposals for routine reporting, which, as previously indicated likely, is to be on a daily basis. More details are provided in a blog.  

Targeted Support Order laid before Parliament 

The Order required for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s Targeted Support regime to go ahead has been laid before Parliament. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (Providing Targeted Support) (Amendment) Order 2026 had been anticipated following the publication of the “near-final” rules about Targeted Support in December 2025 (see Pensions Bulletin 2025/51). 

To briefly recap, Targeted Support is a new specified activity within the existing framework of the Regulated Activities Order. Targeted Support is not providing “advice on investments” but firms offering this service will be subject to different bespoke conduct standards. As such, firms will need to apply to the FCA (or Prudential Regulation Authority as appropriate) in order to provide Targeted Support. 

The Order comes into force for the purpose of enabling applications, and associated FCA powers, from 23 February 2026 and for all other purposes from 6 April 2026. 

FCA proposes to replace its TCFD-aligned Listing Rules requirements 

As heralded by the Government (see Pensions Bulletin 2026/02), the Financial Conduct Authority has now launched its consultation on changes to the Listing Rules so that certain UK entities will need to report against the two UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS S1 and S2) currently in draft.

The FCA says that given the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to unify fragmented climate and wider sustainability reporting frameworks, the disbanding of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the transition to ISSB Standards, it intends to replace its current TCFD-aligned listing rules (most recently extended in January 2022 – see Pensions Bulletin 2021/53) with requirements for in-scope listed companies to report against UK SRS.

Consultation closes on 20 March 2026 and the FCA intends to publish a Policy Statement in Autumn 2026, subject to the UK SRS being finalised by then, with the rules being effective for listed companies’ annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027. Transitional provisions will allow listed companies with an accounting period beginning before that date to voluntarily adopt the new rules early.

Final batch of Stewardship Code 2020 signatories announced

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has issued an announcement in which it says that it has confirmed the final round of successful signatories to the UK Stewardship Code 2020. These are not explicitly named, but the FRC says that the Code now has 291 signatories (which it goes on to list) representing £57.3 trillion assets under management.

These latest signatories are the last to report under the 2020 Code ahead of the transition to the 2026 Code which came into effect on 1 January 2026.

PASA issues guidance on administration through buy-in and superfund transitions 

The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has published “mythbuster” guidance to inform trustees how to navigate the operational and administrative impacts in the period leading up to and following a buy-in or superfund transaction.  

The guidance sets out key priorities for trustees, as follows, with administrators being encouraged throughout to adopt the guiding principles of “Automate, Validate, Communicate”: 

• Align administration early – transfer administration to the superfund or adapt processes for buy-in providers to avoid onboarding delays. 
• Compliance and rule reset – adopt provider processes and rules, retire legacy practices and confirm permitted discretions to ensure clarity and legal compliance. 
• Data integrity and reporting – cleanse critical data fields post-transfer, validate benefits and implement automated monthly reporting to meet provider standards. 
• Transparent member communication – keep members informed throughout the transition, explain changes clearly and prepare FAQs and scripts for common queries. 
• Operational adjustments for deferred members – agree quotation processes, manage the adoption of insurer factors and coordinate cashflows to minimise delays and maintain accuracy. 
• Risk management – anticipate data gaps, payroll delays and cyber risks; define roles, deadlines and contingency plans upfront 
• Resourcing and budgeting – agree scope, fees and contingency budgets early; leverage provider expertise and maintain regular progress update calls. 

Pensions Minister provides update on some policy work

Some news about the Department for Work and Pensions’ plans has been conveyed recently in two written parliamentary answers from Pensions Minister Torsten Bell: 

• Fiduciary duties guidance – on 22 January 2026 it was confirmed that work on the statutory guidance on trustees’ investment duties, first announced in December 2025 (see Pensions Bulletin 2025/50), would commence shortly. Mr Bell reiterated that “The Government is committed to ensuring that private pension trustees have a clear, range of guidance, with the objective of supporting consideration of wider factors within their existing legal obligations”. He also noted that the Government’s objective was for guidance to be delivered “in partnership with the pension sector and other interested parties”, and to that end, the work would be kicked off with an industry roundtable “to gather views and technical expertise to ensure the guidance meets the identified need”. Subsequently, Baroness Sherlock for the Government said, in discussion on the Pension Schemes Bill, that an initial roundtable, with representatives from across the pensions sector and led by the Pensions Minister, took place on 2 February 2026 and the Pensions Minister confirmed that he will be convening a technical working group to take this work forward and that there will be a full consultation on the draft guidance later in the Spring. 
• Strengthening the pensions transfer process – on 26 January 2026 it was confirmed that “in the coming months” the Government will publicly consult on its work “to strengthen the transfer process with enhanced protections”, acknowledging that despite the “strong regulatory framework which allows pension scheme trustees to block pension transfers if there is risk of a scam”, extended measures are being developed “which seek to strengthen protections and combat any areas of evolving risk”.

Pension Schemes Newsletter 177

HMRC Pension Schemes Newsletter 177, published on 30 January 2026 covers four topics:

• Non-UK resident pension scheme administrators: The newsletter outlines the actions that existing non-UK resident pension scheme administrators (PSAs) must take to comply with the requirement that with effect from 6 April 2026, all PSAs of registered pension schemes must be UK resident. It also makes clear that if a registered pension scheme has no UK resident PSA from that date, there would be grounds for HMRC to consider withdrawing the scheme’s registration.
• Inheritance tax for pensions: HMRC invites users to take part in research around the design of a new digital service that allows PSAs and pension scheme practitioners to report the details of an Inheritance Tax payment notice.
• Residency status reports for relief at source schemes: Scheme administrators of relief at source pension schemes should have now received notification of residency status reports. The newsletter outlines what steps can be taken if this report has not yet been received.
• Pension flexibility statistics: The newsletter concludes with some information on the tax repayments processed between 1 October and 31 December 2025.

ONS introducing improvements in approach to collection of inflation data

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is introducing some changes to its approach to collecting the data that feeds into its measurement of inflation statistics with effect from the statistics published in March 2026, at the same time as the annual review of the basket of goods and services. 

First, supermarket scanner data will replace physical price collection for half of the grocery market prices fed into consumer inflation statistics, increasing the number of these monthly price points from 25,000 to 300 million. The ONS expects this to enable it to more accurately adjust figures for changing buying habits within a given category of goods (eg different types of apples). For the shops supplying scanner data, it will also allow better capture of a wider range of promotions so that the price feeding into the statistics will be the price actually charged at the till, not that shown on the shelf. However, while the ONS expects this to significantly improve its understanding of price changes in the grocery market, overall, its analysis shows that on average it would have had little overall change on the headline consumer prices inflation figures over the six-year period since 2019 where they have data.

Second, March 2026’s inflation numbers will include an additional price collection day each month for both hotel stays and computer games. This will double the sample for both with the aim of reducing the volatility that can be introduced by major events in the first case and the changes in the composition of the charts used to select the games in the second.

PPF levy ceiling rises once more

The overall pension protection levy “ceiling” for 2026/27 will be just under £1.5bn – the precise amount being set out in the Pension Protection Fund and Occupational Pension Schemes (Levy Ceiling) Order 2026 (SI 2026/83) made by the DWP on 30 January 2026. This is a 5% increase on the 2025/26 ceiling due to the increase in average weekly earnings in the year to 31 July 2025.

The FCA sends a seal to Waterloo Station… 

Using light-hearted methods to deliver a serious message, last week the Financial Conduct Authority deployed Emil the Seal to Waterloo Station to warn commuters about investment scams. This was part of the FCA’s campaign to promote its Firm Checker tool which should help people quickly verify whether a financial firm is genuine and authorised before handing over their money.

With the FCA reporting that around 700,000 adults experienced an investment-related fraud or scam in the 12 months to May 2024 the FCA is urging consumers to make firm-checking a habit – just like locking the front door – before committing any money.