В Великобритании с 31 июля 2026 года вступают в силу правила для коллективных пенсионных схем с участием нескольких работодателей

How could collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes change the pensions landscape? New regulations mean that multiple employers can apply for collective defined contribution (CDC) pension schemes. But how might this affect the pensions landscape? Need to know: - UK regulations that allow multi-employer collective defined contributions (CDC) pensions came into force in July 2026. - CDC schemes allow individuals to pay into a single collective pension fund, where they share investment and longevity risk. - CDC may not be right for every employer; they will need to consider what is right for their workforce and their organisation. Collective defined contribution (CDC) pensions promise higher retirement incomes, less reliance on individual decision-making and no increase in employer contributions. With the market now opening up, could it become the next big shift in workplace pensions? What are CDC pensions? Royal Mail made history in 2024 by becoming the first UK employer to launch a CDC pension scheme. However, questions remained about whether and when CDC might become available to other UK savers. That question was answered on 31 July 2026, when UK regulations allowing multi-employer CDC came into force. Now, commercial providers and master trusts can apply to The Pensions Regulator for authorisation to run these types of pension schemes. Several have already announced their plans to launch CDC schemes. But what is CDC and how has it developed in the UK? CDC is a type of pension scheme which the UK has imported from more established systems in the Netherlands and Canada. People pay pension contributions into a single collective pension fund, where they share investment and longevity risk. This is in sharp contrast to the current most popular UK model, defined contribution (DC), where individual savers bear all the risk for their own investments. and, in some scenarios, they also run the risk of outliving their savings in retirement. John Mitchem, international pensions expert and co-founder of Jasper Forum, explains: “The UK version of CDC also reflects a broader philosophical shift in retirement policy. Rather than viewing pensions primarily as individual savings accounts, policymakers increasingly describe them as long-term institutions for delivering retirement income. “Collective investment, professional governance, pooled longevity risk and long investment horizons are an effort to restore many of the strengths traditionally associated with defined benefit (DB) pensions while preserving the predictable employer contribution costs that made defined contribution attractive in the first place.” Pension transitions The transition from DB to DC has been one of the most seismic shifts, if not the most seismic, in UK pensions history, and it happened very recently. Employers could be forgiven for asking why they should consider yet another pensions structure. There are two main reasons why it is worth a look. Paul Waters, partner and head of DC markets at consultancy Hymans Robertson, says: “First of all, it is a solution for the pensions adequacy challenge. Broadly, [it] can deliver about 20 to 30% higher pensions as secure income for life in CDC. That is pretty uncontroversially true.” Collective benefits CDC does not entail higher costs for employers or employees. Instead, it pools longevity risk, so that people who die earlier effectively subsidise those who live long lives. Because CDC pools assets and risks across members, it can maintain a longer-term investment strategy, allowing more exposure to higher-risk, higher-growth investments than might typically be appropriate for a person approaching retirement. Second, it gives employees fewer choices to make in retirement, along with greater certainty about their income. As Paul Eagles, head of CDC at TPT Retirement Solutions, one of the providers which has announced it will launch a CDC proposition, explains: “Financial literacy is a longstanding problem in the UK. People don’t know how to make the very challenging financial decisions which we are expecting them to make: how long a pot is going to last, for instance. CDC takes us back to an income in retirement.” Downsides of CDC CDC has several important trade-offs. For one thing, in a typical CDC structure, members cannot leave a legacy to friends or family. “For people who die early, they have lost flexibility and their family don’t get the benefit of their unspent pension,” explains Waters. “So, it is not free money, but in a world in which the government is trying to make DC more of an income for life than a pathway to retirement, in a world in which you as an employer can’t afford to pay more, there is a cost of living crisis and your people can’t afford to pay more, and the DC-only generation are coming to retirement in greater numbers … it is a meaningful uplift.” Another important point to note is that CDC income is not guaranteed over the long term. Rather, income levels are typically set for a year at a time. There is also the possibility that, if markets do not perform well, retirees’ income will be frozen or cut. as famously happened in the Netherlands, prompting widespread protests and concerns about intergenerational fairness. Eagles is not unduly concerned about this possibility, arguing that because CDC is more generous than DC, a year with no pension increase or even a decrease would, most likely, still represent a significant uplift for people. “We have to remind ourselves that if we have a cut in a CDC environment, that would have been much worse in a DC environment,” he explains. “Every day in a DC environment, I can look at my pension value and it will be very different day to day. There was a significant drop in market values in the pandemic. If a member retired at that certain point, they would have had a poorer outcome. As an industry, we don’t necessarily go out and communicate that.” Pensions landscape CDC will not be right for every employer. Some will have recently finished expensive and time-consuming pension reviews. in which case, it could be worth waiting a few years before making any further changes. Employers with high staff turnover and short average service might also decide CDC is not right for their business. “If [an employer] has lots of high earners and/or engaged people in [its] membership with a high proportion of members who are selecting their own investments, taking away all flexibility and investment choice and saying, ‘You are all in this together now’ would be a tough communications story,” adds Waters. Now that multi-employer CDC is legal, providers and master trusts will start applying for authorisation. Employers that are interested should ask their consultants for more information and monitor the press for updates. In the meantime, Eagles is excited about what the future holds. “For a pensions industry which can look quite stale sometimes, from providers there is not much to choose from. This is a fundamental shift in pension provision.”