Millions more people are now saving into a workplace pension because of automatic enrolment. However, opportunities to improve the retirement savings system remain. In fact, recent research conducted by Pensions UK found that without reform more than 50% of savers will fail to meet the retirement income targets set by the 2005 Pensions Commission.
Since automatic enrolment’s introduction, Pensions UK has been building a case for a pensions framework that can help everyone get an adequate income in retirement. This includes ground-breaking initiatives, research and policy work including the Pension Quality Mark, Retirement Living Standards, Retirement income adequacy: Generation by generation, Hitting the target and Guided retirement income choices. But there’s more to be done.
The change we want to see
The Government has begun to take action to address pensions inadequacy, in particular, by introducing reforms to the automatic enrolment regime so that people will save from the first pound of pension saving and from age 18 rather than age 22. This is very much welcome but more action is needed.
We propose recommendations to reform in Five Steps to Better Pensions: Final Report, which builds on an earlier report and consultation Five Steps to Better Pensions: Time for a New Consensus. Together with our members and the industry we will continue our work to build a consensus to ensure a better pensions framework becomes a reality.
Our former Director of Policy and Advocacy, Nigel Peaple, gives his reaction to the Government's announcement of two important changes to automatic enrolment – both measures that Pensions UK has been advocating as part of our ‘Five Steps to Better Pensions’ programme.