7 days

7 Days is a weekly round up of developments in pensions, normally published on Monday afternoons. We collate this information from key industry sources, such as the DWP, HMRC and TPR.

In this 7 Days

• Guidance on Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill published
• Government calls on pension funds to invest in long-term assets
• MaPS publishes research on the expectations of potential dashboard users

Guidance on Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill published

On 6 August 2021, the Home Office published guidance on the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill, including information on how the Bill will implement changes across all the main public service pension schemes in response to the McCloud judgment and the next steps following the Bill.

Government calls on pension funds to invest in long-term assets

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have called on the UK’s institutional investors “to seize the moment for a “Investment Big Bang” to boost Britain’s long-term growth”.

In an open letter published on 4 August 2021, they challenged institutional investors to consider investing a greater proportion of their capital in long-term UK assets, enabling pensions savers “to access better returns and support an innovative, greener future” for the country.

Overseas investors, including pension funds, are said to be benefitting from the opportunities that UK long term investments afford, whereas UK institutional investors “are under-represented”. Over eighty per cent of UK DC investments are said to be “in mostly listed securities, which represent only twenty percent of the UK’s assets”. Whilst recognising that “choosing which assets to invest in remains a matter for pension fund trustees and other institutional investors”, the Government “urges them to consider” whether they could invest more in UK assets that require longer-duration investments.

The letter comes ahead of an Investment Summit in Downing Street in October.

MaPS publishes research on the expectations of potential dashboard users

On 2 August 2021, MaPS published research on the pensions dashboard which was undertaken by PwC Research to understand and explore:

• attitudes, behaviours, needs and expectations of potential dashboard users
• what additional guidance and support users need beyond a view of their pensions data
• what consumers would want to do upon seeing dashboards to inform the customer journey design
• how open users would be to creating a profile with MaPS.

The research found a “high likelihood to use a pensions dashboard in general across all audiences”. Key findings included that:

• the majority are happy to create a profile with MaPS
• tools that allow users to “play around with contributions, retirement ages, lifestyle and retirement options” are seen as the most valuable to users
• “clear signposting” is important to direct anxious users to additional, targeted support and resources.

This MaPS research is separate from, yet complementary to, the qualitative research commissioned by the PDP (see 7 Days).