CBI: Labour pension scheme flawed
THE Government’s new workplace pension scheme could deter millions of savers because of its high and complicated charges, the CBI warns today.
Businesses are worried that staff, and particularly the lower paid, will baulk at the proposed charging structure of the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest), which loads fees towards the earlier years after a pension is opened.
Nest will be introduced in 2012 as part of a plan to secure a much wider take-up of pensions among 11.7m workers in the private sector.
Employees will automatically be enrolled in a pension scheme unless they choose to opt out.
But the CBI warned savers will be put off because a Nest scheme will leave them worse off for well over a decade when compared with other pensions with lower average charges. This may prompt many, particularly those in their 40s and 50s who will only save for a few years in Nest, to opt out, it said.