The main findings are:
Our key policy recommendations are:
Automatic enrolment has brought six million more people into the workplace pensions system.
However, its impact is threatened by a failure to build on the initial policy success and a focus by policymakers on new savings initiatives. Products such as the Help-to-Buy ISA and the forthcoming Lifetime ISA are disconnected from the world of work and priortise goals other than retirement saving.
Meanwhile, the so-called pensions freedom reforms that came into force in April 2015, have undermined the assumption that the purpose of a pension is to provide for an income in retirement by allowing savers greater scope to cash pensions in from age 55. This puts at risk employer support for retirement saving.
Automatic enrolment has also been destabilised by a change in the government’s approach to policy-making which, in recent years, has favoured bold and dramatic changes over slow, patient consensus building to underpin enduring reform.
If automatic enrolment is not to be condemned to a minor role in the UK savings landscape, we need greater urgency in developing plans to build a workplace pensions system that caters to as many workers as possible and allows them to build up sufficient savings for a decent standard of living in old age.
This report utilises original research by the TUC into the reach of automatic enrolment and modelling by the Pensions Policy Institute of potential policy remedies.
Download Unfinished Business Building a fresh consensus on workplace pensions (pdf)
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