A joint campaign by the Association of British Insurers and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association aims to improve people’s understanding and engagement with pensions, starting this autumn and winter. The annual 'engagement season’ comes ahead of the pensions dashboards being rolled out and has the support of the pensions minister. 

 

The two industry associations, representing the worlds of contract-based and trust-based pension saving, argue that without any action to save more, millions of people risk not having enough money to meet their needs. 

 

The joint campaign will run in autumn and winter this year, on social media and in various digital and written communications from pension schemes. It will explain how to identify pension providers, keep details up to date and check how much a pot is worth.

The campaign will thus largely mimic the pensions dashboards ahead of their planned introduction next year. It is being announced while an ongoing cost of living crisis is expected to last into the latter half of the year because a further rise in the energy price cap is due in October.

A proposed 'statement season' drew criticism from the industry last year for being paper-based and putting strain on already stretched administrators.
 

    

 

Fifteen providers and schemes representing about 41.5m savers are currently supporting the campaign, with a combined investment of at least £1m for its organisation over the next three years, and a multiple of this amount in scheme and provider-specific resources. 

 

The resources of the campaign will be free to use by those wanting to participate, including employers, regulators, and government departments.  

 

Pensions minister Guy Opperman said he welcomed the campaign and looked forward to working with industry to get more people saving. “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,” he said. 

 

Yvonne Braun, the ABI’s director of long-term savings policy, highlighted that seven out of ten 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.” 

 

Braun said the campaign will also complement the government’s drive to increase engagement “which we wholeheartedly support”. 

 

Savers want “simple, jargon-free information”, said PLSA director of policy and advocacy, Nigel Peaple. Committing the pensions industry to work together on an engagement campaign with the support of the Department for Work and Pensions means “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 sponsors are providers Aviva, Standard Life, Scottish Widows, Royal London, Pru, Fidelity International, and master trusts Nest, the People’s Pension, Smart Pension and Now Pensions, as well as asset management firm LGIM. 

 

Its supporters include platform provider Hargreaves Lansdown, pension schemes Railpen and the Universities Superannuation Scheme, and provider Just.

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