The government’s Pensions Minister Steve Webb has reiterated his commitment to implementing a cap on pension charges.
Mr Webb insists ‘nothing has changed’ as a result of responses to the official consultation, but says that a cap will not be introduced until April 2015 at the earliest.
He added: “Some of what is ‘leaking out’ is complete nonsense. Let me be absolutely clear, our commitment to value for money has not changed. There is nothing in the consultation responses that challenges our principle that we need to act to give good value for money. Further details will be released as soon as we possibly can.”
Mr Webb went on to say that the cap for Auto Enrolment schemes – proposed at between 0.75% and 1% – was envisaged to fit with a developing Auto Enrolment market. But he did point out that it could be lowered in the future, once the marketplace settles down.
“The market is still evolving. What we don’t want is a situation where there is only one provider. What we want to establish is a balance between value for money and not choking off supply,” the minister said.
Mr Webb said he was committed to making the pensions industry work better for the consumer.