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State Retirement Pensions: Women

Asked by Steve WitherdenLabourDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled Answered 26 February 2026UIN 115262

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Statement of 29 January 2026, what assessment he has made of the reasons why the findings of the 2007 research report did not lead to a targeted public communications campaign to affected women.

Answered by Torsten Bell

The Secretary of State reviewed the 2007 Report on Automatic Pension Forecasts before coming to his decision on the Ombudsman’s investigation.

The 2007 Report concluded that “overall…the evidence suggests negligible influence of the APF on pensions knowledge and retirement planning behaviour”, and around this time the Department stopped sending Automatic Pension Forecasts.

We have placed the 2007 report in the House library, where it can be read in full. The report is also available here: Evaluation of Automatic State Pension Forecasts.

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