Pensions - Articles - MP Frank Field comments on automatic enrolment review

 The Government has published further details on the scope of the 2017 pensions automatic enrolment review, and has included many of the areas recommended in the Committee’s report on Automatic enrolment.

 Rt Hon Frank Field MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “I am very pleased to see that Government has taken so much note of our work, in formulating this review. Our report noted that millions of working people did not benefit from automatic enrolment because they did not meet the lower pay threshold. People in this group are disproportionately likely to be female, ethnic minorities or disabled. The Government has now committed to reviewing the thresholds. We also recommended that the Government consider mechanisms for automatically enrolling self-employed workers and the Government has committed to consider the self-employed as part of the 2017 review.

 “I am disappointed, however, that increasing contribution rates will not be part of the review. Our report found that the statutory combined contribution rates of 8% of qualifying earnings will not be enough to provide most people with an adequate pension and that DWP’s own analysis revealed that 11.9 million people would be under-saving for their retirement. The Government has said it will “strengthen the evidence around appropriate future contributions” but that it does not expect to make any policy decisions in 2017. This is a missed opportunity to help millions of workers save properly for their retirement.”