Pension Wise appointments have reached a record high across March, according to data published by the government.
The number of appointments in March reached 7,010 compared with 5,916 over February, according to the monthly data.
Before March, the last recorded high was in October last year when there were a total of 6,755 appointments in the month.
However, the monthly data also revealed that the cost per website visit has gone up by 18 per cent to 40p per visit.
The price per visit to the website has been increasing each month.
February’s figures state it was 34p each visit.
Website visits since inception have now reached 2.44m and visits are up 10 per cent on February’s figures.
The cost per appointment has gone down to £507 across March.
The high was in August 2015 when the guidance service started at £564 per appointment.
Scott Gallacher, director at Leicester-based Rowley Turton, said on the face of it Pension Wise statistics could be seen as encouraging with appointments reaching a new high of 7,010.
“However, whilst the cost of each appointment has fallen, it is still £507. Instead of introducing Pension Wise, it has been argued that the government could have introduced a simple voucher system to pay for people to use a qualified professional financial adviser.
“With only 7,010 Pension Wise appointments last month, these could have easily been handled by the approximately 20,000 financial advisers, for example, one appointment per month between every three financial advisers.
“As the cost of professional financial advice is typically no more than £200 per hour, a voucher system could have paid for at least two and a half hours of an adviser’s time, and given that many of Pension Wise’s clients will need to see an adviser afterwards anyway, these two and a half hours would have also saved the clients’ money in the long run as the advisers would already be up to speed with the clients circumstances and needs.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com