Podcast: PensionBee chief executive Romi Savova and Jonathan Parker, head of DC and financial wellbeing at Redington, discuss the government’s proposed Long-Term Assets Fund, rumours of a tax raid, and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association’s new Responsible Investment Quality Mark.

On the go: Analysis by the Pensions Policy Institute, sponsored by the Trades Union Congress, has shown that the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic have accelerated the rate of defined benefit scheme closures, but member outcomes are far less reliable in defined contribution schemes.

Savers taking advantage of pension freedoms to cash out before retirement have suffered £2bn in lost returns, spurring calls for better financial education, according to analysis by LCP.

Almost two-thirds of European asset and investment managers believe that the pandemic has made sustainable investing more important, according to Schroders’ Institutional Investor Study 2021.

Almost one in three Generation Xers — individuals aged between 41 and 56 — have inadequate pension savings and face a minimum-at-best standard of living in retirement, according to research by the International Longevity Centre and Standard Life.

On the go: The government has rejected calls to reform the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme that could have seen its members share an additional £1.2bn, a decision critics have branded “intransigent” and a “slap in the face”.

New research from CoreData has shown almost half of millennials, people aged between 25 and 40, want to invest at least part of their pension in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Experts, however, have warned that cryptocurrencies remain a long way off being a viable investment option.

On the go: Information overload and high costs are barriers to integrating sustainability in investments, a Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association poll has found.

This week – Government’s attempt to prop up proposed Long-Term Assets Fund, response to consultation on strengthening TPR’s powers, PLSA launches new RI standards, and LCP calls for a simplification of pensions tax relief.

On the go: The Pensions Administration Standards Association has unveiled its latest counter-fraud guidance, taking aim at scammers and looking to provide pension schemes with the tools used to counter an increase in criminal acts following the introduction of pension freedoms.