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The SCAPE discount rate is used to set the employer contribution rates in the unfunded public sector pension schemes and to determine the actuarial factors across all public sector schemes. The discount rate was reduced on 30 March 2023 to the consumer price index (CPI) plus 1.7% from CPI plus 2.4%.

The current lifetime allowance of £1,073,100 is being removed from 6th April 2023 and abolished all together from 6th April 2024. The maximum amount of tax-free lump sum that you can withdraw from a pension will remain at £268,275 (25% of the current lifetime allowance of £1,073,100) unless you have a valid (enhanced) protection in place before 6th April 2023.

Looking after our investments so we can pay all pensions in full, while working towards our net zero 2050 goal, are essential priorities for Avon Pension Fund. As we make good progress on reducing our investment portfolio’s carbon emissions, our innovative investment strategy has hit the news.

The Avon Pension Fund is pleased to publish both its latest Responsible Investment Annual Report and Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report for 2022.

This year’s Responsible Investment Annual Report serves to update stakeholders on the progress we have made against our climate objectives. This report offers insight into the structural challenges climate-aware investors face and provides details of the Fund’s focus over the coming year as we seek to deliver on our financial and environmental, social and governance (ESG) obligations.

To coincide with COP27’s Finance Day, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) published their inaugural Paris Aligned Asset Owners (PAAO) progress report. The report, which includes 29 case studies, shows how asset owners are developing a range of strategies and approaches to fulfil the criteria set by the PAAO 10-point commitment (which is set out in the report).

In April, Avon Pension Fund signed the 2022 annual ‘Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis’, alongside over 500 other investors managing nearly $39 trillion in AUM. This statement was made public on the IIGCC IIGCC website yesterday, ahead of COP27 in Egypt in November.

The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) has published a factsheet on McCloud. The factsheet sets out TPO’s views on what affected members and schemes can do now and TPO’s present approach to dealing with McCloud complaints.

TPO’s general starting position is that it would not investigate McCloud complaints. This is because it acknowledges that the Government is taking steps to address the discrimination with retrospective effect. TPO will, however, carefully look at the facts of each case before deciding whether to investigate.

We're pleased to bring you our Statement of Compliance with the UK Stewardship Code covering the year 2020 to 31 March 2021. 

Councillor Paul Crossley, Chair of the Pension Committee, said this in recognition of this latest release:

We’re pleased to bring you our Annual Engagement Highlights for 2021, carried out by EOS Federated Hermes on behalf of Avon Pension Fund. The report outlines our engagement and voting ESG activity for 2021. 

At the end of 2021 we published our very first Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report. Today, we’re pleased to publish our Climate Action Plan – outlining the four key pillars of disclosure taken from that report that will help us reach our goal of becoming a net-zero investor by 2050 or earlier.

Following the disclosures set out by the TCFD is not yet compulsory for LGPS funds, so we are proud to be blazing the trail in this way.