XPS Group poll finds 76% of trustees intend to adopt new statutory override for DB surplus

XPS Group poll finds 76% of trustees intend to adopt new statutory override for DB surplus

10 Jun 2025

At an XPS Group webinar on 9 June 2025, attended by 300 trustees, employers and pension managers, 76% of trustees said they were minded to adopt the new statutory override to give themselves the power to distribute surplus. A second poll found that 57% of schemes are now more likely to run-on to build and use surplus, following the Government’s clearer direction on surplus flexibilities. Only 7% said they were less likely to do so.

Commenting on the poll results, Tom Froggett, Head of Run-on Solutions at XPS Group, said: “These results should offer reassurance to the Government. The strong support for running schemes on aligns with our previous research from May 2024, which found that 75% of trustees would be willing to manage a surplus-generating run-on scheme, while 57% of employers would consider doing so if a statutory override were introduced.

It is interesting to compare this apparent support for the new DB surplus flexibilities with the DWP impact assessment, published on 5 June, which estimated that the new flexibilities would lead to £8.4bn of surplus being extracted over the next ten in a central scenario. We believe this significantly understates the potential of the new DB surplus flexibilities, assuming effective implementation. Our research suggests that the potential surplus value that could be released safely over the next 10 years could be closer to £40bn, around 5 times higher than the DWP impact assessment.

This underlines the importance of effective implementation to ensure surplus value is maximised for both employers and members, where it is safe to do so.”