Pensions Act 1995

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The Pensions Act 1995 is a piece of United Kingdom legislation to improve the running of pension schemes.

Following the death of Robert Maxwell it became clear that he had embezzled a large amount of money from the pension fund of Mirror Group Newspapers. As a result of this a review was established to look into ways that the running of pension schemes could be improved. The end result was the Pensions Act 1995.

The main features of the Act included:

The establishment of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority;
The Minimum funding requirement to ensure that all pension schemes had a minimum amount of money;
A compensation fund for pension schemes in the event of fraud;
Protection for existing pension scheme benefits so that they couldn't be reduced in the future without member consent having been obtained;
A requirement for pension schemes to have member nominated trustees;
Greater disclosure of information to members;
The introduction of clear documentation showing what should be paid into a scheme, and monitoring of those contributions;
A minimum rate of increases to apply to pension earned after the date on which the Act came into force, once in payment.

Many of the features introduced by the Act were abolished or amended by the Pensions Act 2004.