The Citizens Advice Bureau has rolled out its second wave of recruitment for Pension Wise staff, focused in eight locations.
A spokesperson for the CAB said the first wave of recruitment was “successful” and brought in 150 full-time staff for the face-to-face delivery of the government’s guidance service, Pension Wise.
As revealed in October, CAB is mandated with delivering the face-to-face element of the guidance, while Tpas will be running the telephone and web-chat service.
Both organisations have admitted they will need to recruit additional staff to cope with the influx of enquiries come 6 April, when the at-retirement reforms kick in. Of those recruited so far, over two thirds have prior pensions experience, the spokesperson noted.
While CAB told FTAdviser it was “desirable” to have a diploma from the Pensions Management Institute or Chartered Insurance Institute qualifications or equivalent in related areas, it is not essential.
However, it is essential to have a “good foundation knowledge of pensions law and practice”, it added. “All Pension Wise staff will undergo the same rigorous training programme and be certified as being competent prior to delivering guidance.
“There are further offers of employment to Pension Wise applicants out at the moment and we are expecting more acceptances of employment throughout coming weeks.”
In the beginning of January, both providers published their first job adverts for Pension Wise, which revealed some discrepancies.
Tpas’ job advert for ‘assistant technical specialists’ detailed that candidates must have experience of working in or with pensions, understanding a range of different pension types and be up to date on legislation.
“You need to be hungry to learn more and will ideally have or be working towards being APMI qualified or a similar professional qualification such as the Chartered Insurance Institute,” the listing added.
However, job adverts for CAB ‘pension guidance guarantee agents’, who will be the first point of contact for consumer, only requested that “some knowledge” on pensions issues would be “an advantage”.
donia.o’loughlin@ft.com
