Pensions & savings
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Wealth & assets

Parliamentary Briefing: Second Reading of the Pensions Bill 2008, House of Commons

Patrick Stevens
Patrick Stevens

This briefing sets out the evidence presented by the Resolution Foundation to the House of Commons in the Second Reading of the Pensions Bill.

Key points

  • Information alone will not be sufficient to ensure people understand how Personal Accounts interact with their personal circumstances. People will need advice and guidance that enables them to understand their pension choices in the context of their wider financial planning. The key to achieving this is to facilitate access to generic financial advice, an issue currently being considered by the Thoresen Review. This analysis has been endorsed by the Work & Pensions Committee and by the Treasury Committee in previous reports.
  • The Foundation has also developed a set of ‘advice protocols’ which we believe could form the basis for the advice and guidance that should be provided alongside Personal Accounts.
  • Ministers made clear during the passage of the previous Pensions Bill that information and communications should be a key priority for the new Delivery Authority; this should now be reflected in the current legislation which will extend the Authority’s powers.
  • The Delivery Authority should liaise with the Thoresen Review as it develops its proposals and, once the Review has reported, should give priority to working with any body established to take forward the Review’s recommendations.

Further reading

Ineffective Savings Accounts
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Molly Broome
In too deep?
The impact of the cost of living crisis on household debt
·
Felicia Odamtten, Simon Pittaway
Precautionary tales
Tackling the problem of low saving among UK households
·
Molly Broome, Ian Mulheirn, Simon Pittaway
Patrick Stevens
Patrick Stevens Trustee