QROPS rules to stay the same until after Brexit

Expats will be relieved to hear there will be no changes to QROPS laws until after Britain finally leaves the European Union.

The massive logjam of legislation necessary before March 2019 is clogging the British parliament’s schedules for the foreseeable future, leaving almost no time to debate and vote on other important legislation. As a result, pension law revisions are being placed on the back burner, according to Charlotte Clarke, director of private pensions and stewardship at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Clarke made the announcement whilst speaking at an industry conference put together by trade body for the retirement savings industry, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association. She added the likelihood of a new pensions bill being introduced before 2020 was ‘very slim’. She also said the situation had its advantages in that, when legislation isn’t possible, this can be a huge problem but it can also be a great relief and an advantage.

UK pensions in general and QROPS in particular have been the subject of rule-changing for years, causing confusion amongst providers and frustration amongst their clients. For example, offshore QROPS pensions aimed at expats have seen the introduction of the overseas transfer tax and the bringing in of the pension age test. Onshore, major savers into pension schemes have been affected by the removal of the annual allowance and lifetime allowance, much to their annoyance.

Both on and offshore providers have been affected by the pensions freedom shakeup, which gave pension savers more options as to how they took their savings and almost killed the providers’ lucrative annuities market. In the same speech, Clarke also revealed an upcoming white paper intended to examine the consolidation of small direct benefit funds in such a way as will safeguard members’ pensions at the same time as saving costs.