Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North was yesterday named as Secretary of State at the Department of Work and Pensions.
Steve Butler, CEO of Punter Southall Aspire, comments:
�I�d like to congratulate Chloe Smith on her appointment. The Department of Work and Pensions, as with the whole government, has a full in-tray.
�The pensions system is critical to the UK�s financial wellbeing. The cost-of-living crisis will inevitably impact the living standards of retirees and deter people from saving for the long term � we are already seeing evidence of this. It is vital that the government provides help to people during this crisis, but I also want to see the government tackle structural issues within the pensions system to improve and encourage lifetime savings in Britain.
�There are three major issues that the new Work and Pensions Secretary must address.
�Auto-enrolment rules need to be changes to help address the gender pension gap and help women save more. The system should be altered so that, for example, if a woman is on a career break to look after children, her partner can pay into her pension pot even though she�s not working. The minimum age and salary level at which you can be auto-enrolled should be lowered so that younger or part-time workers can save, which will help women too.
�The rules for accessing pensions savings and annual savings allowances must be more flexible to reflect that we�re living longer and spending more time in retirement. The Money Purchase Annual Allowance is a major blocker to true pension freedom and it should be reformed so that people aren�t penalised for accessing their long-term savings.
�The Department must build greater awareness of the Pension Tracing Service to help people locate their lost pensions. There is nearly �20bn in unclaimed pensions, so the government should be doing more to encourage people to find their misplaced savings.�
