A Brief History of Pensions Communications

A generation ago, pensions communication was a relatively simple business. Until 1988, employers could make membership of their occupational scheme a condition of employment, so there was little need to promote the benefits of membership. The scheme itself was likely to be a final salary arrangement. Members had no need to consider investment strategies, decumulation options or retirement dates. The point of retirement would be rigidly defined and would reflect the (then legal) mandatory retirement age.

All major decisions would be determined by the scheme’s rules, and the nature of a Defined Benefit (DB) pension promise left many members to assume that all they needed do was wait for their retirement age for a pension to be provided. Perhaps the only major choice would be whether to exercise a commutation option.

Pensions Aspects June 2018

However, a supposedly simpler age still generated problems as a consequence of inadequate communication. Until 1977, married women had the option of paying National Insurance contributions at a reduced rate on the understanding that they would not accrue the State pension in their own right but would be able to claim a State pension based on 60% of their husband’s contribution history once both had reached State Pension Age. The full implications of exercising this option were not adequately understood, and in recent years a generation of women have reached retirement age with inadequate pension provision without being aware of the consequences of a decision made decades previously. Better communication would have avoided this.

Today’s workplace pension schemes are heavily dependent on effective communications as members need to be able to make informed decisions throughout their period of membership.

Although automatic enrolment now sees employees joining schemes by default, membership has, for the last thirty years, been voluntary, and new members must be provided with information which will allow them to decide if membership is in their best interests. Within the private sector the scheme will almost certainly be a Defined Contribution (DC) arrangement. Although the significant majority of members will remain invested in the scheme’s default fund throughout their membership, some will wish to consider alternatives, and these too must be adequately described in order to permit an informed choice. Finally, from their mid fifties, members will consider decumulation options, and today decumulation need not necessarily be at the point of retirement. This is surely the most important aspect of modern pensions communications.

Members need to understand the different options available to them.

They need to understand the consequences of decumulation, such as the effect of the Money Purchase Annual Allowance, and they need to be aware of the risks posed by pensions scams.

The Government understood all too well that the ground breaking reforms of Freedom and Choice required a major communications initiative to ensure that they could operate in a satisfactory manner. The launch of Pension Wise, and its forthcoming incorporation into a single financial guidance body, shows that effective pensions communication is vital if members are to achieve satisfactory retirement outcomes.

In an era where employees are likely to accrue retirement benefits with a range of different employers, keeping track of past pensions is increasingly difficult. The pensions dashboard is a bold solution that will use modern technology to allow members to trace a lifetime’s pension accrual and to make informed decisions about how best to use what they have saved.

Workplace pension provision has never been more complex than it is today.

Effective communication is vital if the current system is to serve members in an effective manner. Finding effective solutions presents a major challenge for today’s pensions professionals. It is a challenge which is addressed at some length in this month’s Pensions Aspects, and we hope you enjoy the ideas that we present here.

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