Many readers of this blog will be aware that there was an awful lot of pensions ‘noise’ in the national media yesterday.

The short-lived frenzy of activity was sparked by the publication of a report entitled ‘Building a strong, stable and transparent pension system’ by the Workplace Retirement Income Commission (WRIC).

The media focused on the headline message from Lord McFall of WRIC that (in his own words):

‘that even after auto-enrolment up to 9 million people may still fall through the cracks in the system and many will be on course for a very poor old age.’

Not only did this grab the media’s attention as a quality pensions scare-story (a constant theme of pension coverage in the national media over recent years), but it also engaged my interest as I began to wonder how this number was actually arrived at.

It was only today, as I finally had a chance to read the report, that I began to question the calculation. After consideration, we have issued the following press release which I believe to be somewhat more balanced on this one, but very important, point:

https://www.jelfgroup.com/cms_files/documents/wric_report_-_comment_-_2aug11final.pdf

Whilst I would stress that I have not yet studied the report in detail, I have to say that on the face of it this report seems to provide little new to the overall pensions arguments of the day. It argues for lower charges and transparency in charging, better annuity options and awareness, reviews of investment risk in DC and wider investment options, and improving the level of pension contributions above the 8% base line for auto-enrolment.

None of the above is new, and in fact much is already in train either via legislation, political debate or good old market forces.

The report may be useful background noise in the wider context of pensions, but I’m not convinced that the headlines it’s generated so far are terribly helpful with auto-enrolment just over the horizon for many.

Best regards

Steve