A bumper new pensions overhaul was unveiled by the Labour government days before Andy Burnham took office as the new Prime Minister and party leader. Pensions Minister Torsten Bell has pulled the covers off a package of changes including new timeframes for several key private workplace pension overhauls in a speech at Mansion House.
Key deadlines for tweaks to policy such as a pension superfund regime, the Value for Money framework and for guided retirement have all been pushed back under the updated plan in its roadmap, all of which will now be overseen by new PM Andy Burnham and new Chancellor John Healey.
The roadmap was drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Pensions Regulator as the government aims to improve the performance of poorly performing funds in order to boost retirement savings planning.
As well as the amended timetable, ministers put forwards several policy documents which cover defined benefit surplus access, superfunds and Value for Money.
The DWP said in the updated roadmap: “As before, these measures will complement other measures such as Pensions Dashboards and work on non-advised DC transfers to help ensure the pensions eco-system supports positive member outcomes.
“We recognise there is more to do. The reforms we are putting in place means pensions regulation also needs to evolve so that it provides the right governance, deals with risks in a consolidated market and gets a durable framework in place that strengthens trust and confidence in the system.
“This package represents an ambitious set of reforms, necessarily so to put the saver first and help ensure they get better value and more secure retirements. The roadmap charts the direction and provides indicative timelines, representing our best estimates, with sufficient specificity to support good business planning.”
Pensions firm Pension Bee supported the plans but cautioned that they must not be kicked down the road again.
Lisa Picardo, Pension Bee’s Chief Business Officer UK, said: “Pension transfers have been broken for too long with savers being blocked from consolidating their own savings and optimising their own retirement outcomes by rules that were designed to protect them but have become a source of harm in their own right.”
She added: “The DWP must ensure they are not replacing one form of delay with another.”