Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association Responds to IRRI Study

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association has today (Wednesday) commented on the Independent Review of Retirement Income.

Tim Gosling, Policy Lead for Defined Contribution at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, commented:

“An overwhelming majority of retirees see the purpose of pensions as providing an income in retirement – it isn’t a surprise that the Independent Review of Retirement Income’s (IRRI) sober analysis of the future of retirement saving reaches the same conclusion as our research. There is now a growing consensus that there is much more to do to ensure that the Government’s pension freedoms strengthen our pension system and help savers to the retirement incomes they deserve. While automatic enrolment has reversed the long-term decline of pension saving pension policy needs stability and consensus to be effective. We believe a standing independent commission will help make sure the long term interests of savers, not the short-term interests of politicians, are at the heart of pension policy.

“Our Understanding Retirement research series has highlighted that savers naturally feel a level of trepidation when approaching retirement and that the pension freedoms have created a new world in which there are no norms for savers to follow or help their decision making process. The IRRI joins the Association and many others in suggesting that we need to apply the lessons of automatic enrolment to retirement decision making. They are also right that we need new retirement products that will help savers manage the many new financial risks they are now exposed to.

“We believe that the forthcoming retirement quality mark, being developed by the Pensions Quality Mark, will help shape the at retirement market in a way that benefits savers. Trustees should be able to signpost pension scheme members to high quality retirement products they feel will meet the needs of those members without fear of legal or regulatory repercussions. We believe this will help people make the increasingly complex decisions now necessary at retirement while ensuring that people retain all the other choices that the pension freedoms offer.”

	Tim Gosling Policy Lead: DC