PensionsNov 22 2021

Pension videos could boost guidance take-up, govt told

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Pension videos could boost guidance take-up, govt told
Guy Opperman via Parliament website

Videos could help get up to 60 per cent of people to take up the government's free pensions guidance offer, a response to a Work and Pensions Committee inquiry has claimed.

Responding to the WPC's inquiry, pensions engagement platform Money Alive proposed 'Project 60' - a way to use videos to provide good quality information to people about their retirement options, with a link through to the Money and Pensions Service's free guidance as the call to action.

The proposal suggested providing the pension scheme's retiring members with an easy-to-click, low-friction way of watching an impartial video that outlines all their options, and then giving them one single call to action to get free government guidance.

By doing this, Money Alive said it believed the take-up of the guidance service could rise from the 14 per cent who currently use it to nearer 60 per cent.

According to its response: "This is a huge, and Money Alive believe, achievable increase in the number currently taking advantage of the offer of free impartial guidance.

"Because the idea is partly delivered and facilitated by existing technology, it can be cost neutral and piloted now."

Anything that makes it easier to engage with advice and guidance will help pension savers make more informed decisions.Stephen Timms

The video would act as the primary engagement and information delivery "mechanism", the company's response stated. 

The second stage will be to "triage" the viewer and help them onto the next stage of their journey, once the person has watched the proposed "Pension Wise Pension Freedoms" educational box set. 

Stephen Timms, MP for East Ham and chairman of the WPC, told FTAdviser: "Anything that makes it easier to engage with advice and guidance will help pension savers make more informed decisions.

"During its inquiry, the committee has heard how engagement with people might be improved, including by the use of technology, to make sure they have the support they need when they access their pensions."

Over the past 12 months, the WPC inquiry has been looking into people's pension options six years on since the introduction of pension freedoms. 

The third and final part of its inquiry has been focusing on saving for later life and what more needs to be done to help people plan and save for retirement.

The inquiry has been investigating if households have adequate savings for retirement and if there are measures the government should consider to reduce the gender pension gap and to support self-employed and gig economy workers save for retirement.

Timms added: "We look forward to publishing our conclusions, including recommendations to the government on how to ensure people have the information they need to make good choices for their retirement."

As reported by FTAdviser one of the government's proposals to get more people engaged and interested in their pension was to create a "pension statements season". 

Despite several industry commentators claiming this could be naive and a waste of time and resources, given the planned launch of the long-awaited dashboard in 2023, pensions minister Guy Opperman stuck by it, telling the WPC on November 8 that it would give savers a better understanding of their savings.

Background

Money Alive set up its video engagement platform in 2018; in 2017 the service first launched with a series of videos aiming to prepare retiring clients for advisers, especially if they were considering doing a pension transfer.

Since then, Money Alive has launched a series of box set videos to help people make informed decisions about their pension pots. For example, earlier this year, the service created a Protect Yourself From Scams box set.

This aims to educate viewers about the ever-increasing threat of scams and how they can reduce the chances of them becoming a victim.

A week later, it launched a two-chapter box set on state pension entitlements to make sure people know what they are entitled to.

In its consultation response, Money Alive said using platforms such as this can create "rich data" about all stages of the viewers' journey and their behaviour.

"This can be used to learn and improve the viewers engagement even further. This means any initial engagement levels could be increased by making evidence based changes to messaging and the viewer journey." 

The response claimed Money Alive has seen 80 per cent engagement with its box sets and believes that, in a wider pensions consumer context, the government could see up to 60 per cent of people take up the offer of free guidance.

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