Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Rejected
We heard that there is a consensus that auto-enrolment has been successful in increasing participation...
Recommendation
We heard that there is a consensus that auto-enrolment has been successful in increasing participation in workplace pension saving but also that it is time to address the challenges which mean many people are unaware they are not saving enough for Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedomss Saving for later life 59 an adequate income in retirement. There is a need to forge a consensus on the future direction, including employers, trade unions, the pensions industry and the wider public. This will require a cross-government commitment to develop a plan and build this consensus. In some areas—such as how to increase self-employed pension saving, ensure any future increase in contributions is well-targeted, and increase pension sharing on divorce—a better evidence base is needed to understand the issues. We recommend that the Government set up a new office tasked with: building and maintaining an evidence base; explaining the trade-offs involved in different policies; reporting regularly to Parliament on progress in meeting objectives relating to retirement adequacy and the gender pension gap. (Paragraph 141) 60 Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedomss Saving for later life
Government Response Summary
The government does not believe a new office is necessary, stating that the DWP already provides evidence and analysis, working closely with stakeholders.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The government does not believe that a new office is necessary to achieve this aim. DWP already provide evidence and analysis in relation to pensions and work closely with a range of government, regulatory and external stakeholders. DWP has significantly enhanced the pension saving evidence base through providing research, analysis and modelling to inform strategy and policy development and recommendations – as well as reviewing system outcomes. This is complemented with engagement with external research projects, wider survey and administrative data development, as well as considering the valuable insights available from across the industry and regulators. DWP has a comprehensive research and trials programme, including recent qualitative research work on Low Earners, and testing the views of savers on engagement with climate and pension saving, which we seek to put in the public domain., We work closely with regulators and other government departments to inform our evidence base; for example, working with TPR, FCA, and HMRC to monitor the impacts of high inflation on pension saving. In the Automatic Enrolment Review 2017 we set out our assessment of the impact of Automatic Enrolment on savers’ participation in pension saving and achievement against the Target Replacement Rate – and we have committed to provide an update to the committee on these figures as soon as the data is available.