Insolvency Technical Update - January 2019

ICAS has launched a  new way to contact our technical helpdesk services including the Insolvency Technical Helpline. The new facility includes some FAQ and a digital portal to make helpline requests. The digital portal makes it easier for members to identify and contact the appropriate technical team, which will help provide a faster response time. It replaces the process of submitting queries by email. The new digital portal also offers greater security and data protection.

The Pensions Protection Fund have issued two new guidance notes:

Guidance Note 6 - How PPF drift arises and should be addressed

Guidance Note 7 - Appointment of independent trustees

The have also updated their other guidance notes all of which are available from the PPF Restructuring and Insolvency Professionals webpage.

The Single Financial Guidance Body took over responsibility for Government sponsored financial guidance on 1 January 2019. The Body brings together under a single organisation the previous services of The Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service and PensionWise. Further information is available from the SFGB website.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have published the Government response to the Law Commission Report on consumer repayments on retailer insolvencies. The Government have accepted the professions representations and decided not to proceed with the Law Commission recommendation that consumers be given a limited priority status. They have also agreed to work with the Law Commission on further proposals to clarify the law on transfer of ownership provisions, and to continue to monitor the development of chargeback guidance.

The Scottish Government have issued a consultation on proposed changes to Protected Trust Deeds. Details of the proposals are available in an icas.com article. The consultation closes on 19 April 2019.

Following the Scottish Government’s decision to withdraw the draft Common Financial Tool (Scotland) Regulations 2018, the Scottish Parliament’s Economy Jobs and Fair Work Committee have published their report on the legislation recommending that the move from the CFS to SFS be delayed by at least a year to address concerns and have recommended that a wider policy review of the CFT be carried out to ascertain whether alternative methods of surplus income calculation are available.