Third Report - Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life

The government is committed to monitoring the use of Pension Wise and the impact of the Stronger Nudge, using metrics such as the volume of appointments attended and FCA Retirement Income data. They will continue to gather evidence and insight to support individuals in making decisions.

The government is committed to carrying out further analysis to measure the adequacy of retirement incomes for current savers, and believes a collection of measures, based on different methodology, provides a greater range of insight, than a single measure alone.

The government acknowledges that current contribution rates may not be adequate but states that its priority is to implement the 2017 Review measures in the mid-2020s and explore ways to prompt savers to engage with their pensions.

The government is committed to making retirement saving simpler for self-employed people and is working with Nest Insight on trials using financial digital platforms to test tech-based nudges. DWP is working with BASDA to explore opportunities to support self-employed people save for their retirement.

The government will continue to work with TPR and BEIS on the gig economy issue, noting that many workers are already eligible for auto-enrolment, and BEIS continues to explore options for collecting data on labour market trends.

DWP continues to work with stakeholders across government to develop an appropriate definition of the gender pensions gap and build an evidence base to inform future policy outcomes.

The government is committed to continually monitor the use of Pension Wise which now includes the impact of the Stronger Nudge, and will continue to work with MaPS to consider feedback on users’ experience of the service and its impact on their knowledge of the options available to them.

The government welcomes having regular and reliable statistics on pension sharing in principle and will engage with HMCTS to understand the barriers to producing and publishing such statistics.

The government has encouraged families who are responsible for a child under 12 to claim Child Benefit regardless of household income to help them build qualifying years of National Insurance for future State Pension entitlement and will keep this under review. Information on what parents should do to protect their future State Pension entitlement is clearly provided on the Child Benefit claim form.

The government supports appropriate marketing of guidance services, including MoneyHelper Pensions, subject to scrutiny. They are exploring further options for encouraging the use of guidance, and MaPS's Pension Guidance Transformation Strategy will improve triage and transfers between the services.

The government is committed to carrying out further analysis to measure the adequacy of retirement incomes for current savers, and will provide an update of their analysis as soon as the data is available. They consider that a collection of measures provides a greater range of insight than a single measure alone.

The government will continue to help people become more informed savers, and are working closely with delivery partners to do so. The FCA has published rules for personal pension schemes, and are consulting on rules for dashboard operators.