UK Pensions: What’s new this week? October 19, 2026

New rights to bereavement leave from April 2027

The government has published a consultation response setting out its proposals for new entitlements to bereavement leave, which are intended to take effect from April 2027. Bereavement leave will be available to:  

(i) employees who experience pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, as well as their partners, the other biological parent and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement, and  

(ii) employees who experience a bereavement of a loved one, including a spouse or partner, parent, adult child, sibling, or someone in an equivalent relationship.  

Employees will be entitled to up to two weeks’ unpaid leave, which may be taken as a continuous period or as individual days within 56 weeks of the bereavement. 

The framework for the new forms of leave was set out in the Employment Rights Act 2026. Further regulations are needed to provide the full details, but schemes should be prepared to review and, if necessary, update their rules before the changes come into force in April. 

Read the consultation response.

Pensions UK AI guide

Pensions UK has published a guide on AI adoption in the pensions industry. It urges schemes to adopt AI quickly so that savers do not turn to unregulated, unsafe tools instead. 

The guide highlights a range of potential benefits of AI use, including improving member communications, helping trustees with administration and decision-making, strengthening fraud detection, providing tailored support and lowering costs. However, schemes must manage the risk of hallucinations and unsafe guidance, cyber security and data privacy threats, and investment risks.

Suggested action points for schemes include: building AI knowledge; assessing the opportunities and risks; making scheme communications clearer for AI interpretation; and strengthening AI governance. 

Read the guide.

Dashboards: update on progress

Speaking at the Pensions UK Annual Conference this week, Oliver Morley, CEO of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), announced that 96% of pension records within scope of the legislation will be connected to the pensions dashboards ecosystem by the October 31, 2026 connection deadline. Schemes and providers with approved deferrals will connect later, taking in-scope coverage to 100%. 

Mr Morley urged the industry to focus on readiness ahead of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard, which is expected to launch in the 2027/28 financial year. Trustees and providers should understand why dashboard users are likely to contact them and make sure they can support the service. He stressed that connection is not the end of the journey. Testing of the MoneyHelper dashboard is speeding up, and MaPS will publish further updates and research in the coming months. 

Read the press release.