Committee calls for new “default” pension pathway and single, public pensions dashboard

In the final report of its inquiry into Pension freedom and choice published today, Thursday 5^th April 2018, the Work and Pensions Committee calls for a simple package of measures to create better informed, more engaged pensions savers – and offer a “default decumulation pathway” to protect the less engaged.  

In its report on pension scams the Committee argued that a  default impartial guidance appointment  immediately prior  to  accessing  a  pension  pot  would result  in better consumer outcomes, and the Government is moving towards that position in the Financial Claims and Guidance Bill, currently awaiting report stage in the Commons.

But greater engagement  earlier in life is necessary  to  ensure  people  have  pension  pots  worth  seeking  guidance  on. The Committee calls for a two-pronged package to create “informed and confident savers … more likely to shop around and take sound financial decisions about their retirement … equipped to exert that competitive pressure”.

The Committee proposes a new, simple, standard drawdown pension:

- the introduction of a new default decumulation pathway to support the disengaged  - and protect their savings  - including through NEST

- a new system of transparent and accessible information

A default pathway

 - NEST, the Government-backed DC pension scheme established to support Automatic Enrolment  has over 5 million savers. Currently, NEST is not able to offer those members decumulation products. Government should allow NEST to provide de-cumulation products from April 2019, including a new default drawdown pathway.  In keeping with the spirit of pension freedoms, savers would remain entitled to move their money wherever they wished

 - Every  pension  provider  offering drawdown  must,  by  April  2019,  offer a default  de-cumulation  pathway suitable  for  their  core  customer  group, subject  to  oversight  by existing Independent  Governance  Committees and  subject  to  the  same  0.75%  charge cap already in place for accumulation in automatic enrolment.

A system of default decumulation pathways will protect consumers who do not engage with their pension saving - but the “real prize” is a properly functioning pension freedom market which offers suitable and good value pensions for more people.   This can be driven by a virtuous cycle of  better-informed customers switching providers and demanding cost-effective products.

Single, public, mandatory pension dashboard

The Committee says the case has been made for a single, publically hosted pensions dashboard: covering state, defined contribution and defined benefit pensions, funded by the industry levy, and in place by April 2019.  The multiple dashboards currently planned, hosted by self-interested providers, would only “add complexity to a problem crying out for simplicity”.  Competition between pension providers over the presentation of the required information risks countering competition in the pensions market.

Instead, Government should mandate all pension providers to provide the necessary information to the single pensions dashboard, hosted by the new single financial guidance body – with an extended timetable for smaller legacy DB schemes to comply.

- Trials show that single page pension passports increase consumer engagement with pensions  options. Pension providers should be required to issue them.

- People who have taken guidance are more likely to then take independent financial advice – but this can be expensive for those with smaller pension pots. Technological innovation has a clear role in filling that gap. The FCA should report on outcomes from automated advice with a view to reassuring potential customers that it can be a useful service, and strengthen the advice offer.

Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Automatic enrolment has been a runaway success, bringing millions of people on board in saving for their retirement. We want to expand that success story so that everyone, no matter how they are saving, has a simple, suitable, default pension option, with a low, capped fee. From that solid base, those who want to choose other options would retain complete freedom to do so. They would be armed with a new range of clear, transparent information in making their choices.”

Notes to Editors:

Financial Guidance and Claims Bill

After apparent initial reluctance, the Government ultimately accepted the Committee’s proposal to legislate for a pension cold ban in the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill. The Government has also developed its proposal for default guidance in line with the Committee’s recommendations.”

Cold calls

The Government was initially reluctant to use the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill as a vehicle for its proposed pan on pension cold calls (Baroness Buscombe in the Lords and Stephen Barclay in oral evidence).

The Committee recommended that given the urgency of the issue a new clause be added to the FG&C Bill to enable a pension cold call ban by June.

The Ministers wrote to the Chair on 31 January to confirm that it agreed with the Committee’s approach.

The Government’s cold call amendment (New Clause 3 to be debated at Report Stage) reflects the Committee’s proposed draft clause.

Pensions Guidance

The Committee recommended that access to pension pots be conditional on the individual either taking pension guidance or explicitly opting out.

For Report Stage of FG&C Bill the Government has tabled amendments which bring its pensions guidance in line with the Committee’s recommendation.