1 July 2008

Rt Hon Mike O'Brien MP

Minister of State for Pensions Reform

The Pensions Advisory Service 25th Anniversary Reception

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

[Check against delivery]

 

The Pensions Advisory Service 25th Anniversary Reception

I am delighted to be here.

To say a big Happy Birthday to the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS).

To celebrate 25 years of outstanding work. Helping individuals better understand their pensions and building confidence in the pensions market.

And I welcome the opportunity to say a few words about the valuable work you have done in the last quarter of a century, and look to continued exemplary work in the coming decades.

TPAS is highly respected, not just in this country, but across the world. The reason for that is because the work TPAS does is unparalleled. It helps thousands of people to have a more comfortable retirement.

Whether ensuring they get a higher state pension, resolving a dispute with an employer pension scheme or providing help to enable people to receive Pension Credit - TPAS is making a real difference to people’s lives.

The service is of the highest quality, it is free and impartial and represents excellent value for money.

And as my Department funds TPAS, I cannot ignore that final feature!

TPAS – what it does

Since 1983, when TPAS was founded, it has grown and evolved. Starting off as a small clutch of volunteers, today it employs a small paid staff of 34 supported by up to 450 volunteer pension professionals.

And its relationship with my Department has grown.

In 1990 recognising the increasing value of the work that TPAS was undertaking, DWP became its sole source of funding, enabling it to plan for the future with greater certainty.

My Department is proud to fund such an effective and successful organisation.

This funding allows TPAS to demonstrate its impartiality, because it is not aligned to pension providers or to their customers.

TPAS performs crucial roles:

• Firstly, a dedicated helpline which provides callers with a comprehensive information and advice service to members of the public across the full range of pensions issues. Last year it received over 60,000 calls. Many with very complex issues, and all of them dealt with by well informed TPAS staff.
• And secondly it supports the helpline by running targeted initiatives to reach groups and to spread awareness of pensions through adverts or online.

The website is increasingly important. Last year it received over half a million hits.

A recent example of a successful campaign is a pilot helpline to give women detailed information about pensions. The pilot was notably successful, helping over 9,000 women over an 8 week period.

For instance, a lady who wanted to know if she was able to make voluntary national insurance contributions. Her circumstances were such that she was unable to do so but the adviser suggested that she investigated entitlement to Pension Credit.

She called back thanking TPAS for their help; not only could she get Pension Credit of £20 a week but was entitled to payments in arrears of several hundred pounds.

I am pleased to see that this and other such success stories mean that TPAS will ensure the helpline continues indefinitely.

This is very encouraging news and illustrates the breadth of advice-giving that TPAS are able to provide.

Of equal importance is the work TPAS continues to do in the challenging area of dispute resolution – no easy task given the complexity of many cases.

I want to pay tribute to many senior members of the pensions world who give a significant amount of their time and energy to helping TPAS resolve the most complex cases.

Your skills and your expertise give TPAS access to a wealth of unparalleled knowledge and experience.

TPAS deals with over 7,000 dispute cases a year and it successfully resolves 90 per cent.

These are just a flavour of some of the achievements TPAS has had in the last year alone.

In its twenty five year history it has helped millions of people.

TPAS continues to play a crucial role, to raise awareness of pensions and to increase saving for the future.

Vision

We know that too few people are saving for their retirement. Coupled with that, we are on average living longer… and we need to pay for that.

So we are undertaking the biggest reforms to UK pensions in 100 years.

We are reforming the State Pension so that it will reward those who care for children or relatives and not just those who work.

And we will re-link it with earnings.

In private pensions, the Pensions Bill, currently before the Lords aims to tackle under-saving and lack of provision. It will make saving in a workplace pension the norm.

By 2015, we aim to see 9 million more people saving, or saving for the first time.

These reforms have the potential to herald a massive step change in the savings habits of the nation.

But to make this happen, we must ensure that we get the details right, particularly around information.

And this is where TPAS’s role will be crucial.

Helping to deliverer our information strategy. So that people have the right information when they are auto-enrolled so they know where to turn if they want more detailed guidance.

Much of this links with the Government’s Financial Inclusion and Financial Capability agendas.

I know TPAS are also keen to play a big part in Money Guidance, the service recommended by Otto Thoresen in his recent review on Financial Capability.

The FSA, who with Treasury is leading on this, are in the early stage of planning but I would welcome TPAS involvement in such a service.

So I look forward to TPAS growing and evolving in the future, as it has done in the past quarter of a century - helping us to deliver these big social reforms and renewing confidence in saving.

Conclusion

Over the last 25 years, TPAS have been a model of professionalism, integrity and clarity, helping many hundreds of thousands of people have a better retirement.

And I look forward to continued success over the coming decades.