Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 6
Third Report - Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life
Published 30 Sep 2022
Paragraph 50
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The middle of a cost of living crisis is not the time to ask people to pay more into their pension. However, if they are to do so in future, work to prepare the ground needs to start now to build consensus on the need for change among employers and the wider public. As a first step, the Government should say whether it considers an increase in minimum contributions possible in the foreseeable future. If not, it should explain how it intends to address the challenge of many people being on course for retirement incomes they will not think adequate.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Third Report - Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life (HC 126), paragraph 50, 30 September 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 23 January 2023 (deadline 30 November 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government "notes" the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation in turn, committing to implement the 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review measures while declining several proposals.
- On the 2017 Review, it remains "committed to the implementation" of its ambitions "in the mid-2020s" and aims to bring forward legislation "at a suitable opportunity and when parliamentary time allows", with a consultation on implementation.
- It declines to consult on a plan for older savers without Defined Benefit pensions, saying "We do not believe now is the right time to consult", and does not support trialling automatic Pension Wise bookings.
- It states that "a new office is necessary" is not its view: the government "does not believe that a new office is necessary" to build the evidence base on retirement adequacy.
- On the gender pensions gap, it is developing a definition and says any target "could only be considered once a suitable definition has been agreed upon".