PLSA supports Work and Pensions Committee recommendations

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) comments on the Third Report of Session 2022-23 of the Work and Pensions Committee, Protecting pension savers – five years on from the pension freedoms: Saving for later life.

Nigel Peaple, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association said: “The PLSA commends the Work and Pensions Committee for its report and fully supports its recommendations.

“We agree with the Committee’s stark assessment that without Government action too many people will fail to achieve an acceptable standard of living in retirement. This is something that is true for people on average earnings, as well as for under-pensioned groups, such as people – often women – who take time out of work to care for others, and specific elements of the workforce such as the self-employed, gig-economy workers and people with part-time jobs.

“Recognising that policy interventions must balance the current cost-of-living crisis with preventing millions of people falling short in retirement over the coming decades, the PLSA strongly believes that reform is needed, but it should be only gradually introduced from the mid-2020s and over the decade that follows.

“It is a sign of the already strong consensus on reform that the Committee’s recommendations echo – or are very similar to – measures for which the PLSA has already publicly argued. PLSA proposals include: implementing Government policy to remove the lower earnings limit on automatic enrolment (AE) saving and extending AE to 18 year olds; plus also gradually increasing minimum AE contributions from the latter part of this decade from 8% to 12%; and changing the law so that gig economy workers benefit from being automatically-enrolled in a workplace pension. We also strongly support the Committee’s proposals to set objectives for pension adequacy and to regularly report whether people’s pension saving is on track to meet them.

“The PLSA urges the new Ministers within the Department for Work and Pensions to carefully consider the Work and Pensions Committee’s report and adopt its recommendations.

“The PLSA has conducted extensive research into the pensions adequacy question and will be publishing its findings, along with a roadmap for reform, at the upcoming PLSA Annual Conference in October.”

Mark Smith, Head of Media Relations
020 7601 1726 | [email protected]

Steven Kennedy, Senior PR Manager
020 7601 1737 | 07713 073024 | [email protected]