SSAS - Contracting Out & Benefits Payable
The majority of SSASs are not contracted out and are on a money purchase basis. There do exist some final salary based SSASs and in these cases, if the SSAS has two or more members, the funding requirements of the Pensions Act 2004 apply. This Act replaced the Minimum Funding Requirement (MFR) regulations with scheme specific funding.
From 6 April 2006 new regulations on benefits apply to registered pension schemes, including SSASs. Income withdrawal is available either through the purchase of a series of short term annuities or as income withdrawal direct from the scheme, or a combination of the two. At age 75 it is no longer necessary to purchase an annuity.
