Pensions: Poverty

(asked on 11th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of guidance to people in receipt of a pension on avoiding poverty in retirement.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 25th February 2021

Pension Wise and The Pensions Advisory Service provide free, impartial guidance to help inform individuals of their pension options. Supporting individuals to make considered decisions regarding their pension savings and income in retirement is of the utmost importance.

Pension Wise evaluates its service annually. In 2019/20, Pension Wise appointment customers were extremely satisfied with the service with 94% being very or fairly satisfied with their overall experience in 2019/20. Nine in ten appointment customers (91%) agree that Pension Wise helped them to consider their pension access options more thoroughly. A similar proportion (89%) felt they learned something new from using the service. These findings suggest that Pension Wise can help customers make better-informed decisions when accessing their pension pots, which is the key aim of the service.

The Government is committed to action that helps to alleviate levels of pensioner poverty. For current pensioners, this includes the contribution of the Triple Lock, the new State Pension and Pension Credit. As a result of the Triple Lock, the full yearly basic State Pension is now over £1,900 a year higher than in 2010, in cash terms. From this April, it will be £2,050 higher. In 2018/19 there were 100,000 fewer pensioners in absolute low income poverty than in 2009/10.

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