19.04.2024
The trustee of the Old British Steel Pension Scheme (OBSPS) has announced it has entered into a buy-in contract, a form of insurance policy for pension schemes.
The value of the benefits secured by this buy-in for OBSPS members will either be the same or higher than the value of their PPF compensation. This is encouraging news for the more than 30,000 scheme members, many of whom will in future see an increase in their pension payments above our compensation levels.
Members are being directly notified by the trustee of this significant development and what it means for them.
Scheme expected to exit assessment at the end of 2021
The OBSPS entered assessment in March 2018 following a restructuring of the UK operations of Tata Steel UK Limited.
The purpose of our assessment process is to determine the funding position of a scheme to see if we need to take responsibility for it or not. If a scheme is underfunded it will transfer to us, and if it’s overfunded it will look to buy-out with an insurer and exit assessment.
As this scheme has progressed through our assessment process, its funding position has been found to be better than originally anticipated. This improved funding enabled the trustee to explore the possibility of securing member benefits outside the PPF.
With this buy-in policy in place, we expect the scheme will be able to exit our assessment process and complete a buy-out. A buy-out is when the responsibility for paying members’ benefits is transferred from the Scheme to the insurer.
This is expected to happen towards the end of next year. Until then, members will continue to receive their benefits from the scheme in line with our compensation levels and can be reassured they remain protected by us.
Useful information for scheme members
The dedicated website for members of the OBSPS has the most recent communication which has been sent to members, and some further information in the updated FAQ section.
How to get in touch
If you’re an OBSPS member and you have further queries which are not answered by the OBSPS website — or you don't have web access — please contact the scheme administrators, Barnett Waddingham:
Old British Steel Pension Scheme
Barnett Waddingham LLP
3 Devon Way
Longbridge Technology Park
Birmingham
B31 2TS
Phone: 0333 566 0156
Email: [email protected]
