Workers facing a bleak old age says pension review
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:03 pmMillions of people face a "bleak old age" because they are falling through the cracks of private sector pension provision, a review suggests.
The Workplace Retirement Income Commission says 14 million people are not saving into a workplace pension scheme at all.
And those who are in a scheme often get charged too much for a service that is complicated and inefficient.
Pensions Minister Steve Webb described the report as "a wake up call".
Lord McFall (pictured), the Labour former chairman of the House of Commons' Treasury Committee, was commissioned to investigate the state of the sector by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF).
The review, which was funded by, but independent of the NAPF, found that workers would not bother to save for a pension unless they were getting a better deal.
"Too many people are stuck in a complex, costly and inefficient system that relegates the consumer's interest to second place. On top of that, they simply are not saving enough to secure a decent retirement," said Lord McFall.
It would never occur to a highly paid politician that many ordinary people simply cannot afford to invest in a private pension scheme and many of those who did now find their investment almost worthless due to the collapse of annuity rates.
