B&CE, the workplace pension provider to over 1.6 million people, today unveiled its auto-enrolment solution; The People’s Pension. It is available to any employer, large or small, in any sector. The new multi-employer scheme, a ‘Super Trust’, has been created to provide choice and to ensure the UK’s working population - particularly low to moderate earners - has access to a hassle-free, transparent and trusted retirement savings solution. As a not-for-profit organisation with no shareholders to pay, B&CE’s focus is placed solely at the heart of its members’ interests and its auto-enrolment solution is now open to everyone not just the construction industry.
Addressing the auto-enrolment challenge
B&CE has been operating UK workplace pension schemes for manual workers for the last 30 years and unlike its rivals in this sector, it has first-hand experience and proven systems for dealing with lower to moderately paid and transient workers. Through their unrivalled experience, B&CE’s response to these challenges is ‘The People’s Pension’.
The People’s Pension will deliver a truly low-cost, hassle-free and portable workplace pension solution designed for ‘the people’ – the majority of the UK population who need to start saving for their retirement. With this clear focus, its product is based on the following principles;
Help for employers – to take as much regulatory hassle away for employers as possible, with a range of online tools and systems supported with a personal service.
Transparency of charging – one low-cost flat rate annual management charge of 0.5% - no other fees or other charge complexities, so employees can understand exactly what they are being charged.
Portability of retirement pots – A flexible solution that means employees can take their pension fund with them wherever their career takes them, without penalty or charge.
Product simplicity – keeping it simple throughout – a pension is a long-term savings vehicle: too much choice and complexity disengages everybody.
Strong governance – a governance framework focussed on ensuring the right outcomes for members not shareholders.
Brian Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer at B&CE commented: “With The People’s Pension, B&CE is well placed to respond to the demands that auto-enrolment will place on employers and employees. We are the only provider who has first-hand experience of operating in this specialist segment of the marketplace and we believe this will significantly benefit our new and existing members. There will be no trial run for us because we have been delivering a stakeholder compliant offering to over 6,000 employers for the past decade. We know the pitfalls and what really matters to our customers.“
Delivering The People’s Pension
The People’s Pension will play a key role in supporting employers with the administrative burden that auto-enrolment brings. This will be based upon our real insight brought about by our experience and built on the core principles we’ve always adopted as an organisation. The core features of The People’s Pension offering are:
Employer Assistance – a bespoke, online management tool to assist employers in meeting their regulatory obligations, with a UK based call centre and dedicated account managers and support material.
Employee Engagement – a suite of auto-enrolment educational materials for employees, helping the employer communicate these complex changes, as well as online account access for individuals.
Design Simplicity – a Super Trust scheme from a trusted, not-for-profit provider. The People’s Pension will offer three risk-based profiles together with a 15-year glide path to retirement and no penalties or fees on transfers. Alternatively members can self-select from seven investment funds (which include sharia and ethical).
Its existing governance structure approach is an effective blend of employer representatives, employee groups (unions) and financial services experts combined with a not-for-profit status providing excellent foundations for governance of these types of schemes. B&CE will continue to adopt these principles for the new trust arrangement as well as add an independent professional Trustee with its own governance framework to give independent oversight.
Patrick Heath-Lay, Director of Finance & Strategic Delivery at B&CE concludes: “Building on our success within construction, we are confident the offer we have put in place will appeal to employers and employees in a wider context as it identifies and addresses everyone’s pension scheme needs. With a single flat rate AMC of 0.5% our offer is highly competitive, with no hidden charges. We are making the scheme available to all sectors not just construction. By creating additional volume we will create economies of scale and achieve a better deal for all - our aim is to gradually reduce our charges as the scheme grows. The charges are based on our years of experience of operating a comparable scheme, so we know first-hand what the associated cost implications are. Crucially, for our customers, they can rest assured that we have no repayment issues as we have no shareholders, making our sole responsibility our members.”
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