Newsletter 161 — August 2024
Published 7 August 2024
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Lifetime allowance (LTA) abolition
In the Pension Schemes Newsletter 158 — April 2024 we confirmed the plan to bring forward legislation to address technical inaccuracies identified with the legislation that abolished the lifetime allowance.
We would like to thank you for your patience during the election period and are pleased to now be able to update you on this.
The government plans to introduce the necessary regulations as soon as the parliamentary timetable permits after the summer recess. Prior to this, we are holding a short technical consultation on the draft legislation. This consultation will close at 11:59pm on Wednesday 14 August. The draft regulations have already been shared with industry representatives.
If you have not received a copy of the draft legislation but wish to comment, you should contact policypensions@hmrc.gov.uk using ‘LTA draft regulations’ in the subject line.
Relief at source — annual return of information for 2023 to 2024
The deadline for submitting your annual return of information and APSS590 declaration for 2023 to 2024 to HMRC has passed. However, there are still returns outstanding from scheme administrators who have submitted interim repayment claims in 2024 to 2025.
If a 2023 to 2024 annual return of information was due for your scheme and is still outstanding, any subsequent interim repayments will be withheld until we receive both the:
- outstanding return
- APSS590 declaration
We want to remind pension scheme administrators that it’s important to use the right naming convention when submitting an annual return of information for 2023 to 2024. Using the wrong references on either the file name or within the annual return itself will mean our systems will reject your submission and you’ll have to resubmit the return.
You can find details of how you should name your files in the:
Pension flexibility data
From 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024, we processed:
- P55 — 11,449 forms
- P53Z — 3,612 forms
- P50Z — 1,018 forms
Total value repaid: £56,925,219
The tax repayment figures for the period 1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024 will be published in Pensions schemes newsletter ― October 2024.
Qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes transfer data
The number of transfers in to qualified recognised overseas pension schemes was 7,100 in 2023 to 2024.
The total value of these transfers was £1.14 billion.
| Year | Number of transfers | Total value of transfers |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 to 2007 | 2,500 | £120,000,000 |
| 2007 to 2008 | 5,700 | £350,000,000 |
| 2008 to 2009 | 6,100 | £360,000,000 |
| 2009 to 2010 | 6,700 | £460,000,000 |
| 2010 to 2011 | 12,800 | £1,360,000,000 |
| 2011 to 2012 | 16,400 | £1,040,000,000 |
| 2012 to 2013 | 13,400 | £1,000,000,000 |
| 2013 to 2014 | 11,300 | £860,000,000 |
| 2014 to 2015 | 20,100 | £1,760,000,000 |
| 2015 to 2016 | 13,700 | £1,500,000,000 |
| 2016 to 2017 | 9,700 | £1,220,000,000 |
| 2017 to 2018 | 4,700 | £740,000,000 |
| 2018 to 2019 | 5,000 | £640,000,000 |
| 2019 to 2020 | 4,400 | £550,000,000 |
| 2020 to 2021 | 3,000 | £416,000,000 |
| 2021 to 2022 | 3,900 | £517,000,000 |
| 2022 to 2023 | 3,300 | £680,000,000 |
| 2023 to 2024 | 7,100 | £1,140,000,000 |
The figures for 2024 to 2025 will be published in July 2025.
Managing pension schemes service
Migrating your pension schemes
You should take action now to migrate your pension schemes to the Managing pension schemes service.
If you’re migrating pension schemes, you should select ‘Add a pension scheme from the Pension schemes online service’ and select each scheme you need to migrate. You should not select ‘Apply to register a new pension scheme’.
If you’ve incorrectly tried to re-register an existing pension scheme that you’re an administrator for, email: migration.mps@hmrc.gov.uk and put ‘Incorrect scheme registration’ in the subject line.
Only pension schemes with a status of ‘open’ on the Pension schemes online service will be included on your list of schemes to migrate. If you can see schemes on your list that are inactive and should be wound up, you should email: migration.mps@hmrc.gov.uk and put ‘Managing pension schemes — Wound Up Schemes’ in the subject line.
Find further guidance on migrating your pension schemes to the Managing pension schemes service.
Migrating your retirement annuity contracts and deferred annuity contracts
You should take action now to migrate your retirement annuity contracts and deferred annuity contracts to the Managing pension schemes service.
For retirement annuity contracts (RACs) and deferred annuity contracts (DACs), no additional information will be required. You’ll only need to complete the declarations on the Managing pension schemes service to migrate these pension schemes.
If you’re a scheme administrator for multiple RACs and DACs, you’ll be given the option to migrate these all together, by completing one set of declarations. It can take up to 48 hours for the RACs and DACs to be added to your list of schemes on the Managing pension schemes service.
If you’re migrating a large number of RACs and DACs, and the migration of any fails, they will reappear in your list of RACs and DACs available to migrate from the Pension schemes online service.
You’ll need to check your list of RACs and DACs available to migrate to make sure all the schemes have successfully migrated to the Managing pension schemes service.