Auto-enrolment “an incomplete monument”, says pensions minister

Pensions minister Paul Maynard described auto-enrolment as “an incomplete monument” at an event hosted by the Lang Cat today (8 February).

Speaking to the consultancy’s Tom McPhail, Maynard noted the successful delivery of auto-enrolment since its introduction in 2012 and the “fundamental change” it represented.

But he also acknowledged more needed to be done to ensure its future success, adding that the reforms outlined in the 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review “have my full support”.

Among the proposed reforms are expanding coverage by lowering the automatic enrolment age from 22 to 18, and abolishing the lower earnings limit so that contributions are payable from the first pound of earnings.

When asked more broadly about his vision for pensions, Maynard replied: “Politicians with a vision can be very dangerous.”

Instead, he emphasised the need to “sweat the small stuff” and said he was guided by the simple principle of “a pensions system that delivers a good standard of living for pensioners”.

Maynard added that he was influenced in this by his Blackpool North and Cleveleys constituency, which has a substantial elderly population and real economic difficulties.

However, he also recognised that there’s a “balance to be struck” between saving for a pension and spending in the present, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.

This, Maynard said, required “the right message at the right time” to sustain people’s interest in pensions.

“The engagement with an 18-year-old is different from a person two years from retirement,” he said, adding “you don’t want to scare people off”.

On the subject of the recent report by the International Longevity Centre – which suggested that the UK state pension age may need to rise to 71 by 2050 – Maynard was less committal, saying he hadn’t yet read the full document.

However, he emphasised that a government report into the same issue would need to take “a much wider perspective”, factoring in things such as the impact of Covid-19 on life expectancy.

Maynard ended by striking an optimistic note about the upcoming UK election, saying that those who thought it was a foregone conclusion “could be in for quite a shock”.