The pensions industry is launching a co-ordinated ‘engagement campaign’ designed to increase consumers’ basic understanding of pensions.
This campaign, which is being led by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) will run in the autum and winter of 2022. It is being supported by 15 major providers and pension schemes, who between them run the retirement savings of 41.5m people.
These providers have committed £1m to running this campaign for the next three years, which will target savers invested in AE, defined benefit schemes as well as SIPPs and other private pensions. It will also address those who have already started taking benefits from their pensions.
The resources of the campaign will widely promoted among employers as well as consumers and will encompass social media, digital and written communications with members and advice as to how people can make contact with their provider.
The campaign has been welcomed by the government and regulators, and has been designed to complement work being done by the Department of Work & Pensions.
Guy Opperman, minister for pensions says: “Engagement season will complement the crucial work already underway on pensions dashboards and simpler statements, helping savers get to grips with their pensions and bringing retirement saving into everyday conversation.”
ABI director of long-term savings policy Yvonne Braun says: “We know that seven out of 10 people find pensions overly complex and difficult to understand. This needs to change, fast.
“Uniting pension providers and schemes around an engagement season focused on pension basics could have a real impact on people’s understanding of the importance of their pension and prepare the ground for pensions dashboards. It will also complement the Government’s drive to increase engagement which we wholeheartedly support.”
PLSA director of policy and advocacy Nigel Peaple adds: “We have seen from the level of engagement with our Retirement Living Standards and the national conversation it started, that savers want simple, jargon-free information to help them get their pension savings working for them. By committing all corners of the pensions industry to pull together on a concentrated engagement campaign – and with the support of the Department for Work and Pensions – we have the potential to move the dial in helping savers understand their pension so that more people have a better income in retirement.”
The campaign is being supported by many providers. Sangita Chawla, chief marketing officer, Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group says: “We fully support plans to boost the nation’s understanding and engagement with their pensions, through a co-ordinated industry campaign. 29 per cent of people say they only need to start thinking about retirement planning when they get older, but the reality is the earlier people engage, the more they are to meet their retirement goals.
“To be truly effective, the campaign will need to recognise that factors such as gender, working status and income levels determine the types of communication people will engage with and the industry will need to target different groups with tailored messages over the period if we want to encourage real change.”
Legal & General commercial director of workplace savings, Katharine Photiou adds: “Boosting people’s engagement with pensions is crucial if they are to have the retirement they expect.
“No two people experience retirement in the same way and as a pensions industry it is on us all to make the whole process as simple as possible. As we approach the 10 year anniversary of auto enrolment it’s clear we need a step change. We support the ABI and PLSA efforts to make this happen. United action is the key to success with this, and we are proud to be one of the 15 providers committed to boosting people’s understanding and engagement with pensions.”
Phil Brown, director of policy at B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension, adds: “With this initiative, the Pensions Minister is putting retirement savers at the heart of government strategy and will help to improve pension engagement by enabling the industry, as a whole, to communicate in a co-ordinated way.
“Since automatic enrolment was introduced nearly 10 years, more than 10 million people have been brought into pensions saving, making it all the more important that the message from providers is both consistent and straightforward.”