The Society for Pension Professionals (SPP) has said they would like to see how a “roadmap” for how auto-enrolment (AE) increases might happen over time.

Speaking at the SPP's latest Annual Conference session, SPP president and XPS Pensions Group head of DC, Sophia Singleton, said; “It’s good that the government has said that adequacy will form a key part of phase two however the question is how far they can go.”

Indeed, she suggested that the government cannot afford an increase in tax revenues at the moment.

Singleton acknowledged that while what could come out of the second part of the review regarding adequacy currently is “uncertain”, she expects that there will not be an immediate increase in AE contribution rates.

However, she suggested it should be a priority and cited research from an SPP membership survey conducted last year, stating that there was “universal” support for increasing the contributions to at least 12 per cent by 2030.

“I think now by looking at the landscape and what we know now, we are looking at a longer time scale,” Singleton said, acknowledging that Australia took 30 years to get to around 12 per cent.

“Hopefully, we’ll have a roadmap that shows in the next five to 15 years that we will get to that sensible target [of 12 per cent].”

Following the election in July, the Labour government included a Pensions Schemes Bill in the King's Speech just one week after the election and launched a pensions review within the first month, which promised a review of adequacy in its second phase.

This review was broadly welcomed by industry experts as many hoped it could drive progress on AE reforms after a lack of change in this area.

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