Auto-enrolment prior to 2012 will be bad for employees

Proposals to allow auto-enrolment into group pension schemes prior to 2012 is likely to be bad for employees in the long term, a specialist consultant to the pensions industry has warned.

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Mike Hall, director of pension communications at Comm Lab, said that although auto-enrolment may see more employees paying into their company’s pension scheme, they would simply pay the minimum amount.

"One of the key aspects of changing behaviours around retirement planning is getting people to think about whether they are paying enough," he said.

"If you set up a scheme so that everyone joins, but they pay the minimum amount, unless they out, you miss a great opportunity to help people pay more from the outset."

Hall said that providers and advisers would have to up their game to improve the level of support employees receive post sale, if auto-enrolment is used heavily throughout the industry.

"We already have a situation that many, many schemes that are put in place by advisers and providers are set up on a default investment basis and then those choices are never reviewed."

Hall added that advisers and product providers needed to think long and hard about how they engaged with members of these schemes and suggested regular communications to educate them about the need to save more.

“An annual statement offers the absolute bare minimum level of communication and would be unacceptable moving forward on its own,” he said.

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