Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, said the 2019/20 Pension Wise user evaluation demonstrates the positive impact it has on users with nine in 10 customers attributing improvements in their understanding of their pension options to their appointment experience.
He said the figures should give the Financial Conduct Authority the motivation to draft rules to ensure the majority of people end up receiving impartial guidance and not a significant minority as is the case today.
“This is another glowing report with high satisfaction levels of 97% among its users,” he said. “Nine out of 10 customers said they felt well informed about their pension options compared to six out of 10 non-users.
“Pension Wise is also on the front line of the ongoing battle against pension scams with 95% of appointment customers confident in their ability to avoid scams compared to 79% of non-users.
“Proof that using the service does help people towards better outcomes is shown by the fact that nearly six out of 10 (57%) planned to change the way they were going to use their pensions after completing their appointment, and this number is higher for those with more modest pensions.
“Yet the weakness is many people may be missing out on this fantastic service they are entitled to, particularly those who are less engaged in pensions or with more modest pension pots.
“Our own recent research found that four in five (81%) of those aged 45-54 with defined contribution pensions did not know they would be entitled to free guidance, that equates to about four million people.
“To avoid anyone missing out in the future, appointments should be automatically booked for pension savers. This would transform the numbers using the service to the levels required with our research indicating that only one in 25 in the 45-54 age group would opt out of an appointment if it had been booked for them.”
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