News

In Pensions News 30 we alerted members to “pension liberation schemes”. Briefly, these are bogus pension schemes set up by unscrupulous companies to encourage you to transfer your pension rights, usually at a real cost to you – not only in excessive charges but you could lose your pension altogether. The pension industry has been clamping down on these schemes, with both the Pensions Regulator and HMRC involved. The latest update from the HMRC is they will now conduct a risk assessment before they decide to register any pension scheme. In addition HMRC will now work closer with schemes such as the Coats Pension Plan when we contact them questioning the validity of the potential receiving scheme.

The changes above are welcomed by the Trustee and the Pensions Office. This is an ongoing battle but please be assured that the Pensions Office team will continue to carry out very strict checks and will bring any suspicious cases to the attention of Regulator.

The latest edition of Pensions News is being issued to all our members and should be delivered in late July. Please click here to read Pensions News 30.

If you are still receiving your copy of Pensions News by post, please remember that you can save the Plan money by choosing to receive future editions of Pensions News and other general correspondence electronically. If you have already given us your email address, thank you.

You may have read in Pensions News 30 that Coats Holdings Ltd (“the Company”) will be will be giving eligible pensioners the opportunity to exchange future annual pension increases for a one-off uplift to part of their pension.

Update – this offer is now closed.

The new telephone number for HMRC tax enquiries is 0300 200 3300.

Application forms for the Coats Foundation Trust (CFT) are now available to download.

The Coats Foundation Trust is a charity with the aim of helping to relieve poverty and to assist in funding education for those who do not have the financial means to study.

For more information about the CFT, or to download an application form, please click here.