At a virtual launch event on Tuesday 22 September, the Minister
for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, , outlined his vision for the working group, the
challenge of small pots, and the Government’s commitment to
putting the consumer at the heart of this work.
Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, , said:
Automatic enrolment has transformed the way people save for
retirement, meaning millions more can look forward to a more
secure future.
With the launch of the cross-sector Working Group and our
ongoing efforts to make Pensions Dashboards a reality, we are
focused on ensuring that consumers can stay on top of their
pension savings, make more informed choices about their
financial futures and have real returns from their savings.
The Minister, speaking at the event led by the Department for
Work and Pensions and supported by the Pensions Policy Institute
(PPI) and Now: Pensions, confirmed the working group will report
later this Autumn with an initial assessment, recommendations and
an indicative roadmap of actions for industry, delivery partners
and Government.
Since launching in 2012, more than 10 million people have been
automatically enrolled into a workplace pension and over 1.7
million employers have met their duties.
Making workplace pension saving the norm, including for lower
earners and people who move jobs frequently, increased the
possibility that an individual’s pension savings could become
fragmented into a number of deferred, small pension pots.
The Government is working with industry and others to ensure the
delivery of Pensions Dashboards, allowing consumers to see what
they have, online and in one place.
The new working group will complement the work on dashboards to
identify the priority option or combination of options to help
tackle the growth of deferred, small pension pots – involving
experts from within the pensions industry, fintech and those
representing member interests and employers.