It’s Pensions Awareness Week, and Emily-Mae Collins of the Association of British Insurers outlines the many positive intiatives that will help consumers pay their pension some attention.
In a sector where long-term outcomes depend on short-term actions, driving meaningful engagement is one of the pensions industry’s most important objectives.
This year’s Pension Attention Campaign looks to address this challenge by encouraging the nation to ‘pay their pension some attention’.
Fronted by TV star Ross Kemp and “pension trainer” Bola Sol, the latest iteration takes us to the gym to Strengthen Your Pension, with Kemp starring in a fitness advert calling on Brits to “gain pounds” for the future.
The research we conducted alongside Pensions UK as part of the campaign highlights how crucial it is that savers act now for a better retirement.
We found that nearly one in five UK adults prioritise getting fit and healthy over saving for later life. In fact, over the past 12 months, 37% of Brits have made a healthy lifestyle change, such as changing their diet or improving their sleep, and 30% have set a new health or fitness goal.
Yet, when it comes to financial health, fewer than one in three (29%) have organised their finances for later life.
Pay Your Pension Some Attention!
Promisingly, work is happening to change this. Alongside efforts from the industry to boost pension engagement, the government is also working to overcome savings obstacles and improve retirement incomes.
The Pension Schemes Bill currently going through parliament will introduce a new Value for Money (VfM) framework, default retirement income solutions, and a small pots consolidation framework for workplace pensions. For the most part, these initiatives – once implemented – should make it easier for consumers to engage with their pensions and achieve good long-term outcomes.
For example, a customer with a few consolidated pots will find it easier to manage their money than customers currently with many smaller pots. The VfM framework will ultimately require pension providers to transfer members out of pension schemes which represent poor value, leading to consolidation too.
“Change is happening to make it easier for everyone to access a better retirement. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to get active with your pension and enjoy the campaign.”
Emily-Mae Collins, ABI
Additionally, default solutions can provide a retirement income with less effort needed from the customer. The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) targeted support proposals are nearly ready too. FCA-authorised firms will likely be able to offer this more tailored form of support from April 2026 onwards.
While these initiatives will make it easier for people when interacting with their pensions, they will often still need to be proactive when it comes to general housekeeping – such as keeping their details up to date.
To help enable this proactivity, we’ve asked the government to consider amending direct marketing rules to ensure that pension schemes can contact their customers with engaging and useful information, especially where automatic enrolment has meant those individuals never had an opportunity to opt in to direct marketing.
In the context of pensions, we want electronic communications to be informative, engaging and to encourage action without being classed as direct marketing, given such low levels of pensions engagement at present.
Change is happening to make it easier for everyone to access a better retirement. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to get active with your pension and enjoy the campaign.
Emily-Mae Collins is a policy adviser for long-term savings at the Association of British Insurers.
