The Money and Pensions Service (Maps) has changed its priorities after seeing a drop in demand for pensions guidance and a shift towards other financial matters due to coronavirus.
Maps said it has seen an initial drop in overall demand for pensions guidance, but has received an increased number of calls from savers concerned about the impact of market volatility on their pension savings, people unsure whether they should push back their planned retirement, and others dealing with the impact of bereavement or ill health.
To deal with this the organisation has adapted its original overarching priorities to place a greater focus on Covid-19 and the need for pensions and money guidance.
Maps' corporate plan for 2020/21, published this morning (June16), showed Maps plans to deliver 580,000 debt advice sessions, 255,000 money guidance sessions, 440,000 tailored pensions guidance sessions and 1.8m digital interactions.
Its budget for 2020/21 is £140.9m, split up as £129.7m for resource spending, £400,000 for capital spending and £10.8m is for the pension dashboard programme.
Caroline Siarkiewicz, chief executive at Maps, said: “Our vision of everyone making the most of their money and pensions doesn’t just apply in the better times but is also about increasing resilience for when the bad times hit.
"To realise our vision, and make a real difference, we need to reach more people throughout their whole lives, an ambition which can only be achieved by working closely with our many, committed stakeholders and partners.”
Maps' original objectives were to first “create a movement” of many different organisations working together towards the same goal.
This will now include leading a coordinated response to support people affected by Covid-19, both before and after the crisis, as well as providing input to key policy-making decisions.
Its second objective was to “deliver for customers” by leading sector-wide initiatives to enhance the quality and capacity of guidance services and developing pensions dashboards.
This has been altered to place more focus on developing a pensions dashboard “to give people the tools and information needed to take ownership of their pensions by enabling them to see all their pensions in one place”.
Lastly, Maps plans to create a fitting organisation for the future by being responsive to needs of savers throughout the crisis and being able to offer guidance in certain areas in a short timescale.
The corporate plan was due to be published at the beginning of April but was delayed to allow a review of how priorities will be flexed in response to the pandemic.
Alongside areas of short-term focus it is also laying the groundwork for the delivery of its UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing in the next ten years.
The organisation is funded by levy payers, collected by both the Pensions Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority, and through the Department for Work and Pensions.
Sir Hector Sants, chair of Maps, said: “We are at a pivotal moment in our journey. We have a long-term vision, and a ten-year strategy to transform financial wellbeing across the UK which sets deliberately ambitious goals.
"In this plan for 2020/21 we set out not only how we will maintain progress towards these goals but also how we will respond to the current crisis, including boosting the provision of debt advice and mobilising dozens of partners as we prepare to take on the future challenges caused by the pandemic.
"Now we need to deliver so that we make a real difference to the lives of people across the UK.”
Maps, which was made up of the merger of Pension Wise, the Money Advice Service and The Pension Advisory Service, officially launched in April 2019 and is a joined-up service for everything guidance, from debt help to money and pensions guidance.
Earlier this year (January 21), Maps launched its UK strategy for financial wellbeing, which set out goals to be achieved by 2030 across financial education, saving, credit, debt advice and retirement.
To encourage more people to save in the long-term Maps has proposed introducing guidance packages which would work alongside the proposed pension dashboards to help people take action when needed.
These packages would be focused on specific life events such as parental leave and divorce.
The service is also responsible for building the first pension dashboard and ensuring that an industry delivery group, brought together by the guidance body, sets out a timetable for other fully operational dashboards, as well as setting standards and ensuring security across the portals.
amy.austin@ft.com
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