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Pensions Bill

moved Amendment No. 103E: 103E: After Clause 48, insert the following new Clause— ““Functions of the Pensions Ombudsman Functions of the Pensions Ombudsman (1) Section 146 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 (c. 48) (functions of the Pensions Ombudsman) is amended as follows. (2) In subsection (7), after paragraph (ba) insert— ““(bb) a person who has given notice in accordance with section 7 of the Pensions Act 2008 (right to opt out of membership of an automatic enrolment scheme);””. (3) In paragraph (c)(i) of that subsection, for ““or (ba)”” substitute ““, (ba) or (bb)””.”” The noble Lord said: I have tabled this amendment to ensure that people who begin saving for their retirement as a consequence of the 2012 reforms enjoy the same safeguards as those who are currently members of pension schemes. Access to the Pensions Ombudsman is one of those safeguards. Section 146 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993 prescribes the type of complaints that the Pensions Ombudsman may investigate. Where a person wishes to make a complaint, or when someone wishes to complain on his behalf, it is necessary for that person to be an ““actual or potential beneficiary”” of the scheme. In practice, the person who wishes to complain must be a member of the scheme, have been a member of the scheme in the past or be in dispute with his employer or the scheme administrators over his right to join the scheme. These arrangements work well at present, but following the introduction of the duties on employers as part of the 2012 reforms we will see the emergence of a new class of people—those who were automatically enrolled into their employers’ schemes and who subsequently opted out. As the Bill makes clear, a person who is automatically enrolled and opts out will be treated as though he had never been a member of the scheme in question. Such a person would not be able to take a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman on the grounds that, being neither a current nor a past member of the scheme, he or she was not an actual or potential beneficiary. That is an undesirable outcome, as that person might well have need of the ombudsman’s services in order to remedy an injustice relating to the opt-out process. We are therefore seeking to amend the Pension Schemes Act 1993 to include people who have opted out in the class of actual or potential beneficiaries, thereby giving them the right to have their complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman investigated. I beg to move.