Commentary on Sections Part 1: Pension scheme membership for jobholders Chapter 1: Employers’ duties Section 2: Continuity of scheme membership
24.This section prevents an employer in any way facilitating the end of a jobholder’s active membership of a qualifying scheme (by action or omission) without putting the member into another qualifying scheme (within a time period to be prescribed by Secretary of State). For example, an employer would not be able to withhold information from the scheme if by that action of the employer the jobholder ceased to be a member. This means that employers have an ongoing duty to ensure that jobholders always have access to a qualifying scheme. This duty does not apply if the jobholder ends membership of their own accord, and the duty only applies so long as the jobholder is employed by the employer.