The chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds told its annual conference there had been a “surge in confidence” in workplace pensions in the past year, along with opt-out rates “we could only have dreamed of”.
But she admitted that “the real challenge is still to come” as smaller companies reached their staging dates.
She said: “Small schemes will be more reliant on advisers and providers to do the heavy lifting for them. When stakeholder pensions were introduced many providers and advisers simply closed their doors because of the volume of business they were getting. They need to be thinking about how they can scale up, right now.”
Ms Segars said schemes could not “cast people adrift” on retirement, yet providers “do not want to know” about small schemes and small pots.
She added that contribution rates would have to rise by 12 or 15 per cent to ensure pensions met people’s expectations.
