The Money and Pensions Service (Maps) is keen to return to face to face appointments, it has said.
Speaking at a Work and Pensions Committee hearing yesterday (September 22), Alex Connolly, chief operating officer at the Money and Pensions Service, said Maps was considering switching back to in-person appointments but will keep a mixed approach to serving its customers.
The guidance service moved to a telephone-based service during the pandemic, which will be a big part moving forward, but it said it was keen to get back to delivering in-person guidance as well.
He said: “We will resume provision of face to face appointments. The specific channel mix will develop based on the learnings from the Covid period. We've clearly demonstrated that it is practical to deliver very effective sessions over the telephone in circumstances where previously we would have delivered face to face.
“It will be more efficient for us to deliver more over the telephone but we need to make this customer orientated, so, where customers need face to face, they'll get face to face, where we can deliver over the telephone, we will seek to deliver over the telephone.”
The MPs asked Maps when it would be making this decision, to which Connolly said it was “actively under consideration at the moment”.
Connolly explained there were a number of things it learned from its telephone delivery.
“We've got significant learnings there that we will incorporate within what we are calling our pensions transformation strategy, which is Maps looking at all its pension services; pensions guidance, Pensions Wise, and think about how we can make them better, more effective, and do a better job for customers.”
Tackling volume of intake
Pension Wise launched in 2015 and Connolly said the volumes have grown year on year and satisfaction levels were very high.
He said: “We work very closely with DWP on the future volume requirements. We very much rely on DWP as the pensions policy team here to steer us as to what capacity is required and we will then make sure that we meet the demand that comes through the door. I can say that we do currently meet all the demand that comes to Pensions Wise and we deliver great service.
“We're actively working with our DWP colleagues as we speak, on the resourcing and the budgets for next year, conscious that stronger nudge launches at the beginning of the next tax year. We expect to conclude those conversations by the end of the calendar year.”
The regulator is looking to introduce new rules to get providers to book Pension Wise appointments for their clients looking to access defined contribution pensions.
In its consultation, which is now closed, the regulator said its proposals would encourage savers to take the right guidance at the right time to help them make informed decisions.
Currently, providers are required to signpost consumers to Pension Wise and encourage them to seek appropriate pension guidance or advice to help them understand their option but take up of Pension Wise guidance remains low.
Carolyn Jones, head of money and pensions guidance policy and strategy at Maps, said: “We don't know what effect the regulations will have, because in reality we don't know how many people are accessing pensions in a given year.
"We know how many pots are accessed but not how many individuals that relates to so we're building scenarios with DWP to try and understand the impact.
“What we are doing with industry, with FCA and with DWP, as those regulations come into force, closely monitoring what impact that will have on our volumes, what impact it will have on our no shows and our cancellations, and we'll adapt those scenario planning circumstances accordingly.”
Pension transformation strategy
Looking at Maps services as a whole, Jones said the key outcome for its pension transformation guidance strategy was making sure people get the right guidance for their needs first time.
She said: “Pension Wise is quite a narrow focus, it's about the six options people have when they access the DC pot. It's available to people with a DC pot, who are over 50 so it excludes DB and people who may have other queries and specific pension concerns and queries at other times in their lives.
“That's where our pension guidance comes in. Our pension guidance answers the phone to people and at the end of that phone can be any question that people have on their pension, so that might be scams related it might be divorce, it might be becoming self employed, or just how do I plan for the future, what should I do next.”
Jones explained that as part of the transformation strategy, Maps was looking at creating a “single pension front door”, meaning when people call in, it can triage them and understand what service they need to try and get them to that service.
“That way we can help a lot wider range of people than just Pension Wise, but we can also look at the context of their circumstances a little bit more.”
In March, Maps unveiled its plans to consolidate its three legacy brands under one single service and rebrand itself as MoneyHelper.
MoneyHelper will be a single destination providing money and pensions guidance over the phone, online and face-to-face.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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