The Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) today published an analysis of Government plans for a Lifetime Provider Model – whereby savers have a single pension scheme throughout their lives irrespective of how many jobs they may have. The model has been suggested by Government as helping to solve the problem of multiple small pension pots being held by savers.
Although the SPP paper, titled “Just one pension?”, acknowledges there may be some benefits from a Lifetime Provider Model, overall, the conclusion is that such an approach would be complex and costly and that alternatives such as the Government’s pension dashboards project could more effectively solve the small pension pots problem.
The paper examines the existing pensions landscape in the UK, employer governance, whether a Lifetime Provider Model will improve member (saver) outcomes and the legislative and legal considerations of introducing this new system.
With contributions from various SPP members including pensions lawyers, administrators, consultants and advisers, the paper provides a broad insight as to pension professionals’ views on the government proposals.
Steve Hitchiner, President of the SPP, said;
“SPP’s latest discussion paper has clearly set out a number of sizeable challenges and downsides to a Lifetime Provider Model. In our view, there are more effective alternatives, most notably a fully operational pensions dashboard system, that would be a far better use of resources.
As well as making any requirement for a LPM largely redundant, concentrating on other pensions policies that are already in motion increases the chances of those policies succeeding; a genuine win-win solution.”
