With effect from 1 January 2002, it is now permissible for providers of Personal Pension Schemes to choose whether to offer income drawdown for protected rights. Commencement Order No. 12 to the WRAPA (SI 2001/4049) , made on 19 December 2001, brings into force an amendment to s.28 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993. Subsection 1A previously stated that “where the member so elects”, effect must be given to protected rights via drawdown - giving the scheme no option.
This Commencement Order also brings into force a few other provisions of the WRAPA. It should be remembered, however, that by no means all of this 1999 Act is in force yet. We are still waiting, for example, to see if the Government will implement the sections on bankruptcy, eg forfeiture under a PPS (s.14) or the provisions for recovery of excessive contributions (ss. 15-16).