Commentary on Sections Part 3 – General Changes to Legislation about Pension Schemes Pensions (No. 2) Act (Northern Ireland) 2008
Sections 20 to 28 of the Pensions (No. 2) Act set out the requirements that a pension scheme must meet if it is to be a qualifying scheme for the purposes of meeting an employer’s enrolment duties under pension legislation. (This is sometimes referred to as “automatic enrolment”.)
The amendments in Schedule 2 to the Act replace the existing definitions of “defined benefits scheme”, “money purchase scheme” and “hybrid scheme” in these sections with the new definitions set out in Part 1 of this Act, and change the section headings accordingly. The quality requirements are on the whole unchanged (except where stated).
Section 26 is amended to refer to a personal pension scheme “that is a defined contributions scheme”. The requirements are the same except it will no longer be a requirement that all benefits under the scheme must be money purchase benefits.
Section 78 is amended to insert the definitions of “defined benefits scheme”, “defined contributions scheme” and “shared risk scheme” as set out in Part 1 of this Act and “collective benefit” as set out in Part 2 of the Act, as well as defining “occupational” as it applies to these pension schemes. The original references to “defined benefits”, “money purchase scheme” and “hybrid scheme” are omitted.