The NAPF has responded to the Department for Work and Pensions’ consultation on the constraints on the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). The NAPF has argued that that these restrictions are acting as barriers to employers wanting to use NEST. The response calls for the following changes:

• NEST should be part of any automatic transfer system of small pots that the Government is developing.
• Employers should be able to bulk transfer in and out of NEST.
• The limit on the amount of the annual contributions that employers and employees can pay into NEST should be removed from mid-2014 when small and medium-size employers start enrolling their workers.

NEST is an important part of the Government’s automatic enrolment reforms and it must be given every chance to succeed. Lifting these restrictions will benefit employers and savers. However, the Government needs to carefully consider the timing of these changes not to jeopardise the fledging automatic enrolment market.

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