Pensions Dashboard has real potential to revolutionise retirement – comment from The People’s Pension
Responding to reports that Esther McVey is planning to “kill off” the Pensions Dashboard, Andy Tarrant, Head of Policy at The People’s Pension, said:
“At a time when 14 million people are at risk of not having enough to live on when they retire, it’s astonishing that an initiative aimed at helping millions of people to live comfortably in retirement, could be seen as a distraction by government.
“The government should be doing everything possible to help people plan ahead. With one in five people across the UK having lost track of a pension, the dashboard will help ensure people keep track of all their savings, have all the information needed to make the important decisions about their financial future, and will allow them to watch all their retirement savings grow and compound over time, helping them to understand what their retirement might look like.
“More than seven in ten people 1 have told The People’s Pension that they want to be able to see all of their pensions in one place. The dashboard has real potential to revolutionise retirement planning for millions of people across the UK and we urge the government not to u-turn on their previously strong support for the initiative.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The People’s Pension is a leading master trust (multi-employer pension scheme), provided by not-for-profit organisation B&CE, serving almost 4 million members and more than 80,000 employers across the UK (accurate as of 17 July 2018). Follow @peoplespension on Twitter.
Seven out of 10 workers back calls for a single pensions dashboard, according to research by The People’s Pension
Seven out of 10 (72%) UK workers with a private or workplace pension scheme back calls for a single pensions dashboard to help them keep track of their savings, as nearly half (47%) admit they don’t know how much they’ve saved for their retirement.
Research from The People’s Pension1, conducted by YouGov2, also found that:
Six out of ten UK workers with a private or workplace pension scheme (60%) don’t know where the details of all their pensions are
One in five respondents (22%) have lost track of a pension
Nearly a third of respondents (29%) don’t know who their current workplace pension is with3
Ahead of the government’s delayed Feasibility Study4, The People’s Pension is calling for a single, public-good pensions dashboard, free from commercial conflict and backed up by legislation, to ensure all providers supply the necessary information to allow savers to see all their pension pots in one place.
Commenting on the survey findings, Dave Brown, Director of Strategy and Innovation at The People’s Pension, said:
“The current pensions system creates too many hurdles for people who want to find out how much they’ve saved and puts people off from planning for retirement until the last minute.
“The average person builds up 11 pension pots over their lifetime, causing, as these findings highlight, a very real risk that pots will be lost or forgotten, with people left unaware of what they’ve saved.
“The pensions dashboard is vital to help people know how much they’ve saved and where their savings are. It has real potential to revolutionise retirement planning, but only if people can see all their pensions in one place.
“A single dashboard, free from commercial conflict and backed up by legislation, as called for by cross-party MP’s, will save people significant amounts of time, stress and hassle. It will ensure they keep track of all their savings, have all the information needed to make the important decisions about their financial future, and will allow them to watch their savings grow and compound over time, helping them to understand what their retirement might look like.”
Discussing his pension savings, Sean from Yorkshire and Humber said:
“Like a lot of people, I’m a layman. I don’t really understand the terms, I don’t really understand what I’m looking at, I don’t know how to compare performance. It would be nice for someone like me to have an easy-to-follow website where you could look at how things are performing, and how well your pensions are going.”
Responding to the survey, Cecilia from London commented:
“It’d be great to have an app which would collate all my pensions together and would let me look at what I’ve managed to save and what my projected pension might be.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
The People’s Pension is the second largest master trust (multi-employer pension scheme) in the UK, with almost 4 million members and more than 80,000 employers (accurate as of 18 June 2018). We tweet as @peoplespension.
The People’s Pension, a not-for profit organisation, is the UK’s second largest master trust (multi-employer pension provider) with almost 4 million members and £4bn assets under management.
YouGov carried out an online survey with a representative sample of 2,297 UK adults in employment aged 18 to 66, between 16 and 20 February 2018.
See the regional survey figures:
Do you know the name of your current workplace pension scheme?
North East
North West
Yorkshire & The Humber
East Midlands
West Midlands
East of England
London
South East
South West
England (NET)
Yes
61%
56%
60%
62%
61%
67%
61%
57%
63%
61%
No
28%
36%
31%
28%
32%
22%
27%
30%
27%
29%
Not applicable – I do not have a workplace pension with the company I currently work for
11%
8%
9%
10%
7%
12%
12%
13%
10%
11%
Have you ever lost track of any of your pension pots?
North East
North West
Yorkshire & The Humber
East Midlands
West Midlands
East of England
London
South East
South West
England (NET)
Yes
22%
21%
17%
24%
27%
18%
23%
20%
26%
22%
No
72%
63%
72%
63%
64%
67%
64%
67%
64%
66%
Don’t know/can’t recall
7%
15%
11%
13%
9%
14%
13%
13%
10%
12%
Thinking generally about keeping track of all your pensions, which one of the following statements describes you best?
North East
North West
Yorkshire & The Humber
East Midlands
West Midlands
East of England
London
South East
South West
England (NET)
I know where all the details are for my pension pot(s)
41%
35%
43%
39%
34%
38%
39%
46%
42%
40%
I know where most of the details are for my pension pot(s)
23%
23%
25%
25%
24%
20%
21%
22%
24%
23%
I know where some of the details are for my pension pot(s)
20%
20%
21%
24%
29%
26%
25%
20%
22%
23%
I don’t know where any of the details are for my pension pot(s)
17%
21%
11%
12%
12%
16%
14%
11%
12%
14%
How interested, if at all, would you be in being able to access a website where you can see all the different pension pots that belong to you (i.e. company, private and state pension) in one place?
