AE reform unlikely to get through in time for Queen’s Speech

Speaking at the House of Commons on February 25, Opperman was asked about the government’s position on the auto-enrolment reform bill, put forward by MP Richard Holden.

Opperman said: “As my honourable friend will understand, we are at the latter part of this parliamentary session. It is the end of February and the Queen’s Speech will come, in all probability — obviously I cannot commit, but it is usually — on the second Wednesday in May, so the house has a relatively limited period of time.”

He said the practical reality is that there is no real way in which the bill would get through the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the time allowed, “and that is the requirement of private members' bills of the nature of his and all others”. 

However, he added: “I can confirm that the government remains committed to the 2017 automatic enrolment review. It remains the case that we will, in the fullness of time, bring forward or support legislation to take this matter forward. My honourable friend will have to bear with me.”

In January, Holden tabled a private members’ bill in the House of Commons in January looking to lower the age threshold for auto-enrolment from 22 to 18, and there were rumours that the £10,000 earnings trigger would be scrapped in line with proposals from think tank Onward, with which he had previously worked.

However, the bill, which was published ahead of the discussion in parliament on February 25, restricts itself to the proposals outlined in the government’s 2017 auto-enrolment review.

It proposes expanding auto-enrolment to 18-year-olds and eliminating the lower, qualifying earnings threshold, making earnings pensionable from the first £1 where people are enrolled or have opted in, but makes no mention of the £10,000 trigger.

This is in line with a written statement from Opperman, published earlier in February, confirming the government’s intent to maintain the earnings trigger and the qualifying earnings bands unchanged for 2022-23.

Meanwhile, Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said it came as no surprise that the bill would not pass before the end of the parliamentary session.

“It was always going to be a challenge to push through these reforms by the end of this parliamentary session, and so it comes as no surprise that Holden’s private members’ bill hit a hurdle, with the minister saying time is running out,” she said.

“However, Holden has fought a strong campaign that has really raised the profile of the need for further reform to auto-enrolment and garnered significant support.”

This article originally appeared on FTAdviser.com