Pensions - Articles - ACA comments on scale of changes in pensions industry

 David Fairs, Chairman of the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA), has expressed serious concern about the huge number of changes that the pensions industry and employers are having to cope with over a very short time-scale:

 “The reforms that both the Treasury and DWP are implementing are on the whole very welcome in offering new flexibilities to both employers and employees, but the time-frames that we are working under, with so many details of these policies remaining unresolved, is extremely worrying.

 “My big fear is that both employers and even more so pension providers and advisers are simply going to be overwhelmed in the current months ahead, with the danger that consumers will become frustrated by industry’s inability to deliver the promised flexibilities. Many of the changes require significant systems changes and my fear is that mistakes will be made in the rush to implement.

 “Pension taxation, in particular, needs to be genuinely simplified. This requires a pause in the ‘permanent revolution’ so we can reflect and cut through the complexity in regulations and uncertainties which are mounting almost on a day by day basis!”