Pensions  

Immediate impacts of the minimum pension age increase

  • Explain what the planned NMPA increase broadly means
  • Explain how transfers from a protected NMPA 55 scheme to an unprotected NMPA 57 work
  • Explain how transfers from an unprotected NMPA 57 scheme to a protected NMPA 55 work
CPD
Approx.30min

If the government does think that further transfers to NMPA 55 schemes are not possible, it is effectively saying under historic rules it has not been possible to transfer from NMPA 55 schemes to NMPA 50 schemes.

It also does not make a great deal of sense to prevent members from consolidating their pensions on this basis. 

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It is possible to transfer in the other direction, so why not from an NMPA 57 scheme to an NMPA 55 scheme?

I suspect the cause of the confusion is that, if someone had not joined a scheme before November 4 2021 then, unless they had started a transfer before that date, it became too late to initiate one.

So the closure of the transfer window was in fact a closure of a ‘joining window’.  

If your client was a member of an NMPA 55 scheme before November 4 2021, they can transfer other benefits to it and inherit the right to take benefits from that earlier age, just like the old NMPA rules.

However, if your client was not a member of an NMPA 55 scheme by that date, they would fail to meet the membership/joining requirement, thereby losing the opportunity to gain the NMPA of 55.

While the rules around the increase in NMPA do not have a direct impact until 2028, it is important to consider how the rules work on transfers with immediate effect.

This is to ensure your clients have the opportunity to benefit from as much flexibility as possible, even if they may not currently be planning to take benefits before reaching 57.

Gareth James is head of policy at AJ Bell

CPD
Approx.30min

Please answer the six multiple choice questions below in order to bank your CPD. Multiple attempts are available until all questions are correctly answered.

  1. True or false, uniformed services pension schemes do not benefit from protection against the increase in the NMPA?

  2. The scheme-linked condition is that the pension offered a right to access benefits from age 55 on:

  3. True or false, HMRC’s expectation of this right means that it curtails the number of schemes that meet the condition because of the veto power held by trustees and managers?

  4. When it comes to membership-based condition, to benefit from protection the client needed to have been a member of a scheme which met the scheme-linked condition by:

  5. Why does Gareth James recommend that advisers should ask administrators of the receiving scheme whether or not the NMPA of 55 will be lost following a transfer to an NMPA 57 scheme?

  6. True or false, if the transfer from the NMPA 55 to the NMPA 57 scheme is structured correctly, any benefits held in the receiving scheme can ‘inherit’ the NMPA of 55?

Nearly There…

You have successfully answered all the questions correctly, well done!

You should now know…

  • Explain what the planned NMPA increase broadly means
  • Explain how transfers from a protected NMPA 55 scheme to an unprotected NMPA 57 work
  • Explain how transfers from an unprotected NMPA 57 scheme to a protected NMPA 55 work

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