The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Andrew Smith, spoke at a Trades Union Congress conference last week. The Inland Revenue's ˜pensions simplification" review is still in progress but has now been delayed until later this year.
Questions were raised as to whether compulsory employer pension contributions would be implemented to reduce the ˜savings gap" in the UK.
Mr Smith said that pension compulsion is off the agenda and suggested that people should work later in their lives. He also said that saving for retirement needed encouraging with the right incentives. Mr Smith promised that the Government would cut the red tape, give people better information and make pension products simpler. He also said that the Government would encourage people to spread their investments around.