This week the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, which Emma is a member of, published its first report of the parliamentary session.
On Monday the Committee published its report on Pensions freedom, guidance and advice, which looked at the pension reforms introduced by the Coalition Government in April 2015. These reforms gave people more choice in how they draw down their pensions.
The Committee acknowledged that the reforms would benefit some savers, but also warned that there was a risk customers could be mis-sold pensions and fall victim to scams unless they received proper advice.
The Committee’s report said that “The pension freedom reforms have increased the prospects of people being conned out of their life savings” and called on the Government to do more to warn people about the threat of scams. It also expressed concern about the low take-up of Pension Wise, the online advice service, warning that the service was “too narrow for many consumers” and that its website was “not fit for purpose.”
You can read the full report by clicking here.
Emma said:
“We in the Labour Party welcomed pension reform, but we were always clear that people needed to be protected from scammers so that they could not be conned out of their life savings. The last round of Tory pension reform in the 1980s resulted in a huge scandal with tens of thousands of victims – the Government needs to learn from those mistakes and act on the Work and Pensions Committee’s recommendations.
“Not everyone is a financial expert, and people need to be able to access cheap and impartial advice so that they can make important decisions about their future. Some of what we heard about the new Pension Wise service was worrying, and so the Government needs to fix those gaps before it is too late.”
Emma was appointed to the Work and Pensions Committee in July this year. The Committee is a cross-party group of MPs that scrutinises Government employment, benefits and pensions policy.