Pensions
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help ensure that workers contribute sufficiently into their pensions to achieve an adequate standard of living in retirement.
Answered by Torsten Bell
Ensuring current and future pensioners have an adequate retirement income is a key priority for this Government and a focus of our landmark pensions review.
Automatic enrolment has already succeeded in transforming retirement saving with over 11 million employees having been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension since 2012. Over 22m employees in Great Britain are benefiting from participating in a workplace pension, with over £131bn saved for eligible individuals in 2023.
The first phase of our pensions review – focused on investment and growth – published its interim report in November 2024. Two consultations on unlocking the UK pensions market for growth and reforming the Local Government Pension Scheme closed in January and we expect to provide our response in Spring 2025.
The second phase of our review will follow in due course – focussing on pension outcomes and retirement adequacy.
Alongside this, the Pension Schemes Bill, announced in the King’s Speech includes measures which could boost pension pots by over £11, 000 for average earners saving over their lifetime in a defined contribution scheme.
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