The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) is a scheme that was set up by the government to provide a minimum level of benefits to members of qualifying pension schemes who would otherwise lose all or part of their pension benefits because their pension scheme wound up when underfunded. The FAS closed to Notification and Qualification of new schemes on 1 September 2016. Members who are in receipt of, or with a deferred entitlement to receive, assistance payments from the FAS are not affected by the closure.
In general, the FAS covers schemes that are not eligible for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) because before 6 April 2005 either:
the scheme went into winding up, or
the scheme’s sponsoring employer became insolvent
The PPF has administered FAS since 10 July 2009 and has issued various explanatory materials for trustees and members on the FAS website and FAS Member website, including:
a comprehensive list of FAQs and
a useful glossary of FAS and pensions terminology
Generally, underfunded schemes that started to wind up on or after 6 April 2005 should look to the PPF...
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