As we build on the strength of our first two decades, we look to the future with confidence, determined to play a leading role in creating a more secure pensions landscape for everyone in the UK. Our commitment to our members and the schemes we protect is unwavering. We make a material difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of pensions who depend on us and we are driven by the great social value we provide.
Over the course of this three-year strategy, our primary purpose will be to focus on the following key outcomes:
- Deliver strong investment performance to ensure financial security for those we protect.
- Maintain excellent service, securing high member and levy payer satisfaction levels.
- Partner with government and the pensions industry to help give people greater financial security in retirement, both for the members of the schemes we protect and more widely.
- Inspire our people to achieve these ambitions so that they are engaged and proud of the role we play, and able to contribute to their full potential.
To achieve our desired outcomes, we will work towards a number of goals, grouped under four strategic priorities:
Our goals, grouped under four strategic priorities
We act in the interests of those we protect
- Work with government to reduce costs for schemes and employers by revising the legislation governing our external funding, reflecting our financial strength, including by:
- creating a framework that allows for a zero levy but also supports financial security by enabling the levy to be reintroduced in the unlikely event it becomes necessary.
- considering the necessary changes to the industry-funded PPF administration levy in line with the recommendation that it be abolished, recognising that the PPF is now in a position to be self-funding.
- Work with government to enable PPF and FAS compensation data to be available to our members on pensions dashboards as soon as possible.
- Work with government to progress a review of indexation of compensation, recognising in particular the need to consider changes to pre-97 indexation levels, as recommended by the Work and Pensions Select Committee in March 2024.
- Finalise all known applications to the Fraud Compensation Fund (FCF) and work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to review and establish whether any future claims on the FCF are likely.
We help shape change in the pensions industry
- Work with government and other stakeholders to consider how the skills, capabilities and resources of the PPF could be leveraged to further support improved outcomes for our current members and levy payers, for the members of the schemes we protect and for the pensions sector.
- Improve the speed of the decision-making process for PPF+ cases (schemes entering a PPF assessment period overfunded on an s143 basis), through collaboration with our partners, including our panel firms and insurers. We will strengthen our capabilities to support these schemes, leading to a faster, more efficient process for overfunded schemes to move through the assessment period and on to an insurer or consolidator.
- Work with TPR and DWP to investigate the best way to “manage DB pension schemes unlikely to make it to buy-out, in a way that maximises the benefit to savers”, as recommended in the Pensions Regulator 2023 review.
- Collaborate with industry partners to help improve the data we hold on UK DB schemes, enabling a better understanding of the risks they face and the risk they pose to us.
- Shape new conversations in external forums, learning from others and sharing our expertise, such as our experience in pensions administration, investment management and the wider pensions framework.
We adapt and evolve
- Undertake a programme of work to benchmark our key functions to relevant peers (in the UK and globally) in order to identify and implement beneficial changes that will ensure we operate both efficiently and effectively.
- Continue to evolve our funding framework and the overall strategy. To allow for developments in the pensions landscape over the last three years as well as
the future evolution of the environment we operate in, we will continue to review and evolve our funding framework. While doing so, we will seek to identify and learn from relevant practices in comparable institutions (in the UK and globally).
- Ensure our systems, processes, relationships and data are fit for a post-levy environment. We will put in place systems and processes (including a new approach to gathering data on the risk of employer insolvency) that will ensure we continue to have the data we need, consider how best to maintain our relationship with levy payers; and gather and manage scheme data for the organisation in a modern and flexible way.
- Leverage technology, including (where appropriate) increasing use of AI and making sure we have the right structures in place to gather, manage and store our data. This will be critical in allowing us to meet our ambitions whilst maintaining efficiency.
- Review our ‘core’ systems. The systems supporting our member services, investment and shared services functions will be reviewed. We will seek to improve user satisfaction, efficiency and flexibility to support continued improvement and digitalisation. This will include our pensions administration system; our investment portfolio and risk management system; HR and finance and systems; and our websites.
We build on our strong foundations
- Develop and implement a new people strategy that supports the goals of this three-year plan and the culture we need to be successful.
- Deliver on our 2025–28 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy, building on the achievements of our previous strategy. This will include a focus on social mobility for the first time, to ensure we have access to the widest pool of talent, so that our organisation reflects our community, and that all our people can contribute to their fullest extent.
- Establish a view on climate change transition requirements, reflecting changing expectations and best practice. We will undertake a gap analysis and have a clear view on our climate change transition pathway, underpinned by the best possible data on the impacts of the investments we hold.
- Understand the carbon footprint of our operations and what we can do to reach our goal of Net Zero in our operations by 2035,set meaningful targets and engage our people to ensure those targets are met.
- Establish how aligned our material suppliers are with our own sustainability commitments and strategy. This will further our knowledge of areas of strength and risks associated with our supply chain.
To find out more, download the full version of our three-year strategy.
You can also download our previous strategic plan.
Business Plan
Our strategy sets out our long-term vision for the next three years while our Business Plan covers our key organisational objectives for the current financial year.We report on our progress against our objectives in our Annual Report and Accounts, published after the end of the financial year.