Transfer from Enhance – Construction Pension Scheme Northern Ireland (“Enhance”) to Workers Pension Trust
Enhance is a multi-employer scheme for the NI construction industry. Workers Pension Trust is a multi-employer, auto-enrolment pension scheme for Northern Ireland. Both Enhance and Workers Pension Trust are under common administration and governance, with related Trustee Boards and with links to the Joint Council for the Building and Civil Engineering Industry (Northern Ireland).
In light of legislative changes applicable to Master Trusts, the Trustees have taken legal advice and it has been decided to restructure and refine the number of pension arrangements on offer. Based on this advice, a decision has been taken to transfer your employees who are Enhance members and their benefits to Workers Pension Trust on the same terms and conditions applicable to them under Enhance.
We have consulted with and have the agreement of the Joint Council for the Building and Civil Engineering Industry (Northern Ireland).
What will happen to your employees who are currently members of Enhance?
With effect from 30 July 2018 your employees, who were members of Enhance, became members of Workers Pension Trust. Their pension savings accumulated to date transferred from Enhance to Workers Pension Trust in September 2018.
There will be no change to the levels of contributions or death in service cover applicable to your employees as a result of this transfer.
The Trustee of Enhance has appointed and is receiving advice from an independent adviser with regard to implementing the transfer.
What will happen to your employees who were formerly members of Enhance?
Former members, who have deferred pension benefits in Enhance (with the exception of some members entitled to short service benefits), will also have their pension benefits transferred to Workers Pension Trust in September 2018.
Workers Pension Trust currently has over 100,000 members and funds under management of over £400 million. Thousands of businesses have chosen it to automatically enrol their employees in line with the automatic enrolment requirements that took effect from 2012.
Workers Pension Trust is one of the first Master Trusts in the UK to attain Master Trust Assurance accreditation. This is a standard for operation of Master Trusts, a hallmark of quality set by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW).
In August 2019 Workers Pension Trust became the first Northern Ireland based pension provider to be awarded Master Trust Authorisation from The Pensions Regulator. Authorisation creates safeguards by ensuring master trusts are run by fit and proper people, have the right systems and processes in place and are financially sustainable.
Workers Pension Trust has the same default investment choices as Enhance. Pension savings are invested in the same way following the transfer. (Please click here for further information on changing investment choices.)
Workers Pension Trust will have written to you separately to provide further information on how the Scheme works.
The last contributions to Enhance were for July 2018, collected as normal on 10 August 2018. Thereafter, contributions in respect of existing members of Enhance are made to Workers Pension Trust, and new employees will be admitted to membership of Workers Pension Trust.
The first contributions made to Workers Pension Trust were August 2018 contributions, payable to Workers Pension Trust by 12 September 2018 in line with the Contribution Statement. Contributions will continue to be made to Workers Pension Trust at the same rates as they were under Enhance.
We have written to your employees to inform them of the transfer.
If you require any further information or have any questions, please contact us by email on info@workerspensiontrust.co.uk or telephone a member of our team on 0345 475 0555.
