ICAEW plans to open up some of the professional content currently available exclusively to faculty members with a new pay-per-view system, which will allow all members to buy one-off guidance without joining a faculty

The Pensions Research Accountants Group (PRAG) has published guidance on how pension scheme accounts need to account for their equalisation liabilities for guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs) following the Lloyds judgment on pension equality

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has signalled it intends to get tougher on companies and trustees to ensure pension scheme members are treated fairly, with updated guidance on how defined benefit (DB) schemes should be funded, reports Pat Sweet

Increasing regulation, the threat of government intervention and recent court decisions mean that defined benefit pension schemes are proving to be a real liability for employers, says Rosalind Connor, partner at ARC Pensions Law

An accountant who treated a pension scheme for which he was a trustee and administrator like a ‘personal piggy bank’ has been found guilty of fraud for transferring more than £280,000 of funds to support his own businesses and investments

An accounts manager who tried to hide the fact that restaurants had not given their staff workplace pensions has been ordered to pay £5,000, after being taken to court by the Pensions Regulator (TPR)

The government is to introduce a new criminal offence of ‘wilful or reckless behaviour’ in relation to pensions, which would see ‘devil may care’ directors facing up to seven years in jail, under proposals to crack down on abuse of final or average salary schemes

Probate fees are set to be hiked up to £6,000 for the largest estates as the government plans to overhaul the death tax from April 2019, a measure delayed from 2017 due to the early general election

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is consulting on proposals to encourage defined contribution (DC) pension schemes to invest more widely, in areas such as start-up companies, housing, and green energy, to boost returns and encourage economic development

HMRC repaid over £30m to pension savers who had been taxed incorrectly on lump sum withdrawals in the last quarter of 2018, while the total paid back since the start of pension freedoms in April 2015 now tops £400m, prompting calls for a change in approach

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is consulting on measures to stop up to 100,000 consumers a year losing out on pension income when they access the pension freedoms, with proposals which the regulator says could benefit people by up to £25m a year

Over 200,000 parents are at risk of missing out on their future state pension in families where one parent does not work, due to childcare commitments, and the other is the higher household earner and claiming child benefit, HMRC has revealed

The Insolvency Service has issued a warning to people to guard their pension savings from investment scammers and negligent trustees, having identified over £200m of losses after closing down 24 companies for pension misuse

HMRC has issued guidance only two weeks before the self assessment deadline to help taxpayers work out when the pensions money purchase annual allowance (MPAA) applies and whether tax is payable on pension savings

Anne-Marie Winton, partner at ARC Pensions Law LLP, examines the pre-pack administration of publisher Johnston Press, which involved the abandoning of £109m in pension liabilities, and asks whether regulators should have greater control of this practice