Pensions

Steve Webb Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2014 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)]

This Government are committed to tackling high charges in workplace pension schemes, in particular, for those workers who do not exercise any choice, where they are automatically enrolled into a scheme then remain in the default fund.

Our consultation on pension scheme charging closed at the end of November. We continue to examine the responses, and will bring forward further proposals, in due course. However, one strong theme to emerge is about the timing for the implementation of any changes.

We remain strongly minded to cap pension scheme charges in the default funds used for automatic enrolment. However, we have consistently encouraged firms to start getting ready for automatic enrolment 12 months ahead of the time the new employer duties apply to them. Therefore, to give those employers at least 12 months’ notice of the rules that will apply to them, I can confirm that any cap on charges will not be introduced before April 2015.