In her first new blog for Sipps Professional, Claire Trott, head of pensions technical at Talbot and Muir, reflects on an Autumn Statement, which left her with a number of questions to ponder...

Each year I sit waiting for the fine detail to appear at the time of the Autumn Statement or the Budget and I know that I will be asked, fairly soon after, if I can explain what it means and what the impact will be for advisers and their clients. I am expected to understand what the Government is trying to convey to public.

Sometimes it is fairly simple, other times I am left sitting scratching my head and this Autumn Statement was a case in point. I think I am safe to say there were no major changes to our pension regime, but I can’t be sure because the few lines dedicated to pensions in the statement are so poorly written, that they could pretty much mean anything.

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The one point that has pension technicians baffled is the reference to “Dependant Scheme Pensions – legislation will be introduced to simplify the test that takes place when a Dependant’s Scheme Pension is payable. (Finance Bill 2016)”.

What does this really mean and what is the test they are referring to? It surely must be significant or why would they mention it? I feel that it is likely to be just a tidying up exercise, but with such a vague statement I can’t be sure and it really concerns me.

Having a mathematical background means that I like to have absolutes, with regards to this I would like to know things like, why, when, how does it work, what can I do about it? I just can’t accept that it is just a statement that means nothing and there isn’t anything I need to prepare for.

This isn’t the only example of poor wording or as I feel in this particular case, a lack of understanding on the Government’s part as to the impact of their words in this statement. Words and technicalities are everything in the pensions world.

A “Scheme Pension” is clearly not the same as a pension provided by a scheme, so it should be referring to a final salary scheme or an actual Scheme Pension, written under a money purchase scheme arrangement such as a Sipp. To be honest, I am not convinced they know the difference, so until we see some draft legislation or further guidance on the matter I will continue to wonder.