Pension Wise is a free and impartial

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

advice service set up by the government of the United Kingdom in 2015. It offers guidance for people on the

changes introduced in the

2014 United Kingdom budget The 2014 United Kingdom budget was delivered by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 19 March 2014. It was the fifth budget of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government formed af ...

. Under these changes those with a

defined contribution pension scheme A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

are no longer required to buy an annuity. Instead they are allowed to take as much or as little from their pension pot as they wish to invest or spend themselves. Oliver Wright of '' The Independent'' newspaper described this change as the biggest change to pensions in nearly a century. The cost of establishing and supporting the service in its first year was £35 million. The Pension Wise website has been criticised by the Work and Pensions Select Committee as has the low take up of Pension Wise appointments The Equity Release Council have recommended that Pension Wise be extended to allow advice on equity release. Responsibility for the service was initially under HM Treasury but moved to the Department for Work and Pensions in March 2016. Pension Wise guidance is delivered via telephone and face to face appointments or online. The service is available to people aged 50 years and over with a Defined Contribution pension to help them understand what they can do with their pension pot(s). Telephone appointments were provided through

The Pensions Advisory Service The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) was a non-departmental public body and independent non-profit company limited by guarantee in the United Kingdom, which provided free information, advice and guidance on state, company and individual pension sch ...

(TPAS) (which was replaced in 2019 by the

Money and Pensions Service The Money and Pensions Service (sometimes stylised as Money & Pensions Service or MaPS) is an organisation whose statutory objective is to develop and co-ordinate a national strategy to improve people’s financial capabilities. The service provi ...

), and face to face appointments through Citizens Advice. Appointments are delivered by over 150 guidance specialists whose training has been accredited by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) or the Pensions Management Institute (PMI). Pension Wise does not give specific product or provider recommendations. It also stops short of providing advice, which must still be delivered by a regulated financial adviser. As of March 2021 there were more than 7.5 million visits to the Pension Wise website and more than 250,000 Pension Wise appointments. According to the

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...

, 46% of consumers who took part in their consumer survey had received guidance from Pension Wise.https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/market-studies/ms16-1-3-annex-3.pdf

References

External links

Pension Wise
{{Citizens Advice Citizens Advice Pensions in the United Kingdom

See also

References

Further reading

External links