Accessing pension savings: Committee publishes Government response to report
27 April 2022
The Work and Pensions Committee publishes the Government and FCA responses to its report on accessing pension savings.
- Read the Response
- Inquiry: Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life
- Work and Pensions Committee
Published in January, the report called on the Government and regulators to play a more active role in supporting savers to make better decisions about their money.
The Committee recommended that “the Government sets a goal for the Money and Pension Service for the combined use of Pension Wise and paid for advice when accessing pension pots for the first time. This goal should be at least 60 per cent and expressed in terms of individuals rather than pots.” In response, the Government said it “does not support setting a target proportion of members utilising advice or Pension Wise guidance.”
The Government also rejects the Committee’s calls for a trail of automatic Pension Wise appointments.
Chair's comment
Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said:
“We welcome the Government’s commitment to take forward work on many of the important issues we raised – for example, to extend Collective Defined Contribution schemes and improve the data we have on what individual savers are doing. We remain concerned however that, without an ambitious target, take-up of Pension Wise will continue to be low. The Government has rejected the Committee’s recommendation for trials of automatic Pension Wise appointments, deciding instead to proceed with its ‘stronger nudge’, which the Committee did not think would be enough to make receiving pensions guidance the norm. Ministers must now set out plans to monitor the impact of the stronger nudge, what they think will count as success, and set a timeline for review.”
The Committee’s inquiry on accessing pension savings was the second part of a wider inquiry examining the impact of the introduction of the pension freedoms in 2015. The Committee previous published a report on pension scams and is currently examining how people can be supported to plan and save for retirement.
Further information
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