The spending review seems to have passed by without directly impacting workplace pension schemes.
As the political arguments play out around which are the least unpalatable state benefits to cut, accelerated increases in the state retirement age are being seen as a possible target of government cost-savings.
This could have an interesting, if secondary, impact on workplace schemes. “If people don’t get their state pension until later, they are probably not going to draw their workplace pension until later,” argues Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown.
We’ll see how that one plays out. But as the chancellor sat down to review how the government was spending its money, it seems the country’s largest employers have started to review their own auto-enrolment spends.
Early indications suggest the secondary market is a lot quicker to spark than many would have predicted.
Survey data suggest some of the first employers to stage are unhappy with the amount of administration work they had been left with, or the links between the various parts of their benefits systems.
In an editorial at the beginning of last month I reported on views that employers had in some cases – not surprisingly – sidelined designing good investment solutions in order to concentrate on complying with the regulation.
For Fidelity to enter the mastertrust market almost a year after the advent of auto-enrolment is, in part, an indication that the secondary market is shaping up.
If these early signs are accurate, and if it means employers are reviewing whether the set-ups they selected in the mad dash to the AE starting line provide as appropriate an investment strategy as they do a compliant structure, then this development is to be welcomed.
On this site you will also read about a number of employers trying to get it right first time around.
Ian Smith is editor of Pensions Week. You can follow him on Twitter @iankmsmith and the team @pensionsweek
