Will the Pension Schemes Bill be helpful to members of Reuters pension schemes?
This article is an update to last year’s News post about whether pension reforms could impact members.
The straight answer to this question is: “No, not in the short term, but potentially in the medium to long term, it could be.”
When the Pension Review Group reviews new pension scheme regulations, a question it always considers is “could it have an impact on inflationary increases?” In the case of the current bill going through Parliament, our hope was that it would require retrospective changes to defined benefit pension schemes, resulting in enhancements to pensions accrued before 1997. Despite the best efforts of lobbying groups, particularly the Pre-1997 Alliance, the Pensions Minister Torsten Bell has made it clear that this is not going to happen.
More positively, the Pension Schemes Bill should strengthen the powers of the trustees of pension schemes and require them to consider the situation of those members who would benefit from a discretionary increase and whether the scheme has a history of making such awards. This would be particularly relevant if a pension scheme is deemed to have a large surplus. Given that it is normal for the funding levels of a pension scheme to fluctuate, the reported going concern surplus of the Reuters Pension Fund in June 2025 of 10% would not be considered large.
We will need to wait until further guidance is produced by The Pensions Regulator before being able to assess how significant the changes will be. Currently there is a constructive relationship between the Reuters Pension Fund trustees and the London Stock Exchange Group, so if in the years ahead, the fund ends up with a significant surplus, the bill currently going through Parliament may support the case for a more generous distribution to Reuters pensioners.

Other articles that may be of interest to you :

Reuters Pension Fund Admin errors cause concern

Could the planned pension reforms impact Reuters pension scheme members?

How good is the RPF dispute process?

Information available on the ISIO Reuters Pension Fund website:

Pensioners can login to their “my pension tracker” account to access the letter informing them of their 1 January 2026 pension increase. Click here to do so.

With immediate effect the trustees have chosen Willis Towers Watson to provide trustee secretariat services, replacing Barnet Waddingham. Click here to view the announcement.

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We hope that you will continue to keep us informed of your views and any pension problems that have not been resolved through normal channels.

Meanwhile, please note that the current agreement for annual inflation increases to members with pre-1997 service expires at the end of 2027. As we have seen in the press, there are changes being discussed that could have impacts on defined benefit pension schemes and their members. PRG will be closely monitoring developments.