Pensions - Articles - Webb promises to name and shame auto-enrolment failures

 Pensions minister Steve Webb has promised to name and shame providers who allow their clients to auto enrol employees into a “dodgy old scheme”.

 Speaking at the National Association of Pension Funds’ annual conference, Mr Webb welcomed a statement from Aviva that it was committed to “a modern, simple, low-cost scheme offering good value for money.

 “I am convinced the market will deliver quality all the way down the market if we will allow it to,” and said he expects others to follow Aviva’s lead.

 “I will name and praise anyone doing this,” Mr Webb said, “and I will name and shame anyone who doesn’t.”

 Mr Webb rejected claims that risk sharing is off the table for workplace pensions and said he is working on possible options.

 He said: “Where employers wants to risk share, why shouldn’t we help them? There is significant appetite out there [for risk sharing] among large FTSE 100 employers and there is employee appetite, too.”

 However, whatever structure is chosen, the idea that guarantees cannot be offered to those engaging in risk sharing schemes is actually not going to be a big problem.

 Mr Webb explained: “I spoke to a provider this week and the numbers don’t look that scary. It will take time but we need to get started on it now.”