The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has called on the government to announce a pensions bill in the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament tomorrow (17 July).

PLSA director of policy and advocacy, Nigel Peaple, argued that there was widespread agreement that pension policy needs reform.

The new government has already confirmed that it will conduct an independent review of UK pensions, and the PLSA said that it should keep up the pace of change with an announcement of a pensions bill.

“This bill would enable the government to quickly progress any recommendations arising from its pensions review and pick up important areas of policy reform already initiated by the previous government,” Peaple stated.

“This includes necessary legislation to require schemes to provide more support to savers at retirement, to grant The Pensions Regulator wind-up powers required under the proposed value for money framework, and for the creation of the defined benefit (DB) superfunds regime.”

Furthermore, Peaple said that if the government was serious about significantly improving the retirement outcomes of the UK’s workforce, a pensions bill should set out a timeline for gradually increasing minimum auto-enrolment contributions from 8 per cent to 12 per cent.

“We would also expect the Pensions Minister to shortly propose secondary legislation to expand the scope of automatic enrolment by introducing saving from the first pound of earnings and lowering the qualifying age to 18 instead of 22,” he continued.

“The PLSA stands ready to provide expertise to the pensions review to help the government achieve its ambitions for growth and improving retirement incomes for savers.”

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