The TUC has urged Pensions Minister Mike O'Brien to resist pensions industry lobbying to water down the test to decide whether an employer's pension scheme is good enough to qualify as an alternative to Personal Accounts.
To gain exemption, employers will need to show that they are making minimum contributions, calculated as a percentage on a band of earnings, that are at least as good as those required by personal accounts. The Pensions Bill, currently going through the House of Lords, contains a broad definition of earnings, including bonuses, allowances and overtime - all of which must attract this minimum contribution for every employee. However, there has been strong lobbying from the pensions industry that some types of earnings should be exempt or that the test should be weakened in another way, s...
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