Evidence shows that consumers often fail to make the most of their pensions. We want to understand consumer behaviour at key points in the pension saving journey to improve pension outcomes. This involves identifying the best points at which to offer savers support, who is best placed to provide that support, and how this can be done.
Why we are publishing this
The pensions and retirement income markets have evolved significantly in recent years. Automatic enrolment (AE) changed the way many people save into their pension and the Pension Freedoms give consumers more choice when they access their pension savings. There has also been a shift away from defined benefit (DB) schemes towards saving into defined contribution (DC) schemes, transferring the risk and much of the responsibility for retirement outcomes onto the consumer.
However, evidence shows that consumers struggle to engage with their pensions and fail to make decisions that optimise their pension saving. They may remain in poor-performing products – often originally chosen by their employer and can be susceptible to scams.
We will use the responses to this Call for Input to consider and target future regulatory interventions in areas that benefit consumers the most.
Who this applies to
This Call for Input will be of interest to:
- pension providers
- pension trustees
- trade bodies
- consumers and consumer groups
- academics
- employers
Next steps
Please share your views, including responses to our questions by 30 July 2021.
Please send responses to: [email protected] and
[email protected].