Ian Blackford – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Blackford on 2015-12-02.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding Pension Wise to include consideration of housing wealth as a source of retirement income.

Harriett Baldwin

The Government is committed to ensuring that individuals are equipped and empowered to make informed decisions about how to use their pension savings through the Pension Wise service.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) standards for the service state that guidance should provide the consumer with information about long-term care needs, sustainability of income in retirement and life expectancy, to the extent that they are relevant. Pension Wise guidance therefore prompts consumers to think about their retirement objectives and wider financial circumstances when deciding on what to do with their pension pot. As part of this consumers are asked about whether they receive any benefits, other retirement income, outgoings in retirement, and plans to continue working. The guidance is designed to equip consumers to consider questions about their situation as a whole, and directs them to further sources of information as suitable. Where it is clear that consumers need specialist help, they are directed to the appropriate source of guidance and information.

Pension Wise is constantly assessing and evaluating the service to ensure that user needs are met. As such, it is currently actively considering a number of developments, as part of our continuous service improvement, to make Pension Wise even more useful to consumers, including tailoring session content more closely to individual circumstances.