As pensions minister’s focus shifts, trustees may struggle to keep up, warns RSM UK

As pensions minister Laura Trott announces a raft of new measures for defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, which aim to close the pensions inequality gap, Karen Tasker, pensions audit partner at RSM UK, gives her reaction to the news: ‘While the consolidation of pensions and focus on addressing inequality is welcome, other new directives that the industry has been waiting over a year for, such as the new single code and the pensions dashboard, seem to have been further delayed. Addressing the issue of small pots is the right way forward for defined contribution schemes, however this raises the question of who will foot the bill and put in the framework for yesterday’s DC announcement? It could mean a lot of further expense for employers.

‘We are already seeing pensions administrators struggle with workloads and additional pressures brought about by a raft of industry changes, some of which they still need clarity on, like the new code. The danger of so much change at once is that controls may be weaker due to resource issues and in the current economic downturn, where fraud and cyber crime is likely to increase, pensions trustees must be conscious of the heightened risk.’