The Department of Work and Pensions minister Sir Stephen Timms has reiterated that he would like to see the government set out a timetable to increase auto-enrolment contributions.
His comments came at an event at the Labour Party Conference hosted by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
Timms was speaking at the event which was focused on tackling poverty. Asked by the Society of Pension Professionals about the government plans to increase AE contributions, Timms expressed a desire for a timetable to be set out to increase contributions from their current 8 per cent minimum.
This has previously been recommended at a cross-party review into auto-enrolment, a report whose main findings where accepted by the previous government, and the Labour Party which was then in opposition.
However Timms pointed out that while he was a minister within the DWP he was not the pensions minister, who would be making the decision on whether and when contributions levels will be lifted.
Responding to the SPP question Timms said: “I am not the Pensions Minister and I realise we are living through a cost-of-living crisis but as I said when I chaired the Work and Pensions Select Committee, I think we have got to have a road map so people can see we are committed to doing this and when.”
Sophia Worringer, Deputy Policy Director at the Centre for Social Justice added: “This is a huge problem that we can’t just keep kicking down the road.”
The Department for Work & Pensions has already found that 38 per cent of working age people (equivalent to 12.5 million people) are not saving enough for retirement and increasing the minimum pensions contributions for AE is widely seen as a key means of solving this problem.