{"id":612067,"date":"2025-12-04T17:18:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/612067\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T17:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:18:21","slug":"labour-warned-not-to-oversell-untested-pension-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/612067\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour warned not to \u2018oversell\u2019 untested pension scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers must not accelerate the new Retirement CDC schemes, pension provider Aegon warned, as the proposals remain untested and require far deeper scrutiny before any widespread rollout.<\/p>\n<p>The warning comes as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) consultation on the new collective arrangements closes today.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The concept is unproven. It is a highly complex innovation and needs substantially more thought before it can be safely offered within the wider pensions market&#8221;, Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The concept of Retirement CDC warrants further exploration and analysis and could prove to be a valuable addition to retirement options&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said there are significant concerns about progressing too quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Cameron urged caution over any effort by the Government to promote the schemes too strongly, particularly amid suggestions they could become a default option under forthcoming pension legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Retirement CDC is a newer variation of Collective Defined Contribution models and differs from existing arrangements used throughout a member&#8217;s working life.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, these schemes would begin at the point an individual starts taking their retirement income and could also be adopted as a default option by trustees or providers.<\/p>\n<p>Members are paid an income intended to track inflation across their lifetime, but payments are not guaranteed and may vary each year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"42c5f\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"ef9fcd222e58bdaf5feb76369aec5d76\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201600%20900'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/keir-starmer-and-pensioner.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Keir Starmer and pensioner\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The warning follows the closure of the DWP\u2019s consultation on collective arrangements today<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GETTY<\/p>\n<p>If investment performance fails to meet expectations, member income can fall. He said trustees and providers must be confident in every aspect of the new model before offering it to savers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A key area for consideration is how to frame medical underwriting to avoid those in poorer health unfairly subsidising healthier which often means wealthier members&#8221;, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Cameron also questioned the reliability of any projections currently being circulated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While there have been various claims around the likely income from Retirement CDC, these are highly dependent on investment strategy and are unproven&#8221;, Mr Cameron said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"93e66\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"b8aaeb63728aec93910037a661512e50\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201600%20900'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/pensioners.png\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Pensioners\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He believes that  that the Government should not encourage trustees or providers to adopt the model prematurely<\/p>\n<p> | GETTY<\/p>\n<p>He repeated his concern that the Government should not encourage trustees or providers to adopt the model prematurely.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We urge the Government not to &#8216;oversell&#8217; the concept to trustees or scheme providers particularly if, as the consultation implies, it sees Retirement CDC as a candidate for the Pension Schemes Bill&#8217;s default pension benefit solutions&#8221;, he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said any broader rollout will demand careful planning rather than rapid implementation.<\/p>\n<p>Aegon research carried out with AON suggests around a third of pension savers find the idea of Retirement CDC appealing.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Cameron also pointed to potential capacity pressures within the industry.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"8f4c3\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"e14d798ea0ef1abed25e41595fd6d7c3\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201024%20691'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aegon.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"691\" alt=\"Aegon\"\/><\/p>\n<p>He added that proven benefits of Retirement CDC should see the model applied outside workplaces too<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GETTY<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With so many other huge workplace pensions changes being driven by Government, there are additional &#8216;bandwidth&#8217; risks here across much of the industry&#8221;, he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that if detailed analysis eventually shows Retirement CDC offers genuine benefits, then the model should not be limited to workplace environments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If after proper analysis, Retirement CDC is shown to be an attractive option, then rather than the current plan to bar it from the retail market, we&#8217;d urge the Government and FCA to explore how to offer access to retail customers outside workplace pensions, potentially with a requirement to seek advice,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Aegon provides pension and investment services to more than 3.5 million customers across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>DWP have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers must not accelerate the new Retirement CDC schemes, pension provider Aegon warned, as the proposals remain untested&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,528,1232,12,617,2499,285,512,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-612067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-labour-party","11":"tag-money","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pensions","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-sgg","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-uk-politics","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115662441884840298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}