Ministers must accelerate pension dashboard after ‘disappointing’ delays, AJ Bell chief warns
Ministers must push ahead with the roll-out of the much-delayed pension dashboard or risk savers disengaging with their retirement cash, the chief of AJ Bell has warned.
In an interview with City A.M., Michael Summersgill, the boss of the FTSE 250 retail investment firm, said there was a danger of Brits losing touch with their savings without greater control and visibility via the planned dashboard.
“The one [area] I would focus on, is rather than saying people should be buying into equities, focus on pensions. People do engage with pensions, the vast majority of the workforce understand that they need to have a pension, they want to have a pension,” Summersgill told City PM
The issue that was “disappointing” in AJ Bell’s first six months of trading this year was the “stalling in the pension dashboard initiative”, Summersgill added.
“It’s not a perfect initiative, not by a long stretch, but I think it is something that would help,” he said.
The Department for Work and Pensions first plotted the launch of an online dashboard in 2016 to allow UK savers oversight of their savings and give them the opportunity to consolidate their pots later in life.
A launch was initially pencilled in for 2019 but this was pushed back until August 2023 and has now been further delayed. Ministers have said there will be a further update on timelines ahead of the parliamentary recess.
Summersgill, who took over the reins as chief from founder Andy Bell in October last year, said last week that AJ Bell is also set to benefit from changes rolled out by government at the end of April.
“The strength of our pension offering ensures we are in a good position to benefit from the removal of the pension lifetime allowance charge and increases to pension annual allowances in April,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
“We have campaigned for pension simplification for many years and believe these welcome changes will give customers the freedom to invest more in their pensions without having to worry about tax penalties as their investments grow over time.”
The comments came as AJ Bell reported a 61 per cent boost in profits in the first six months of the year.