Bill to overhaul private pensions

The new Pensions Bill, paving the way for a radical overhaul of pension provision, is to be published on July 17th, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, announced yesterday.

He was speaking at the presentation of the annual report of the Pensions Board which recorded a 10 per cent increase - to 629,801 - last year in occupational pension scheme membership registered with it.

Mr Ahern acknowledged the Board's contribution to preparations for the Bill and said the report on the Pensions Ombudsman and many recommendations of the National Pensions Policy Initiative had been taken on board in the new legislation.

But despite the rise in occupational pension registrations, Pensions Board chief executive, Ms Anne Maher, said she doubted that pension coverage had kept pace with the increase in the workforce.

"We are currently working on a national survey of pension coverage and the likelihood is that private pension coverage may still be falling," Ms Maher said.

Overall pension scheme compliance with regulatory requirements was showing slow but steady improvement, she said. In 2000, the Board was involved in the monitoring of administration arrears clearance in the case of 16 leading pension practitioners.

The Pension Board's concern is that arrears in administration prevent timely compliance with the statutory requirements.

"We are coming out of the woods in relation to administration arrears and will be going back to random testing for the coming year," Ms Maher said. The Board took no prosecutions in 2000 but is considering four cases at the moment. Ms Maher said the Board would be taking legal action against late filers of actuarial funding certificates.

She described the Funding Standard, the requirement that defined benefit pension schemes have enough funds to meet their obligations, as the lynch-pin of pensions regulation.