Tuesday 13 December 2016 1:38 pm

Authorities claim victory for pension savers but underline there’s still room for improvement

Over a million Britons' retirement savings have been boosted by slashed pension charges, authorities revealed today.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and department for work and pensions (DWP) hailed the news as "significant progress" but still felt there was more work to be done in reducing costs levied on retirement savings.

In 2013 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) concluded £30bn of pension savings were at risk of delivering poor value for money. In response, the independent project board (IPB) was set up with a remit to reduce pension charges and costs.

The FCA and DWP today published a report reflecting on the progress of IPB initiatives.

Andrew Bailey, the FCA's chief exec, said there had been "good progress towards the goals that the IPB laid out but this is not the end of the story".

According to the joint progress report, 16 per cent of assets under management and 15 per cent of trust-based schemes are still subject to the risk of high costs and charges – and the FCA and DWP said they would be getting involved to contact companies who are dragging their heels.

“There is still more to do so we will be contacting the providers who have not yet taken satisfactory actions to remedy poor value schemes and we expect them to act swiftly to ensure good value for customers," said Bailey.

Such sentiment was echoed by pensions minister Richard Harrington: “I am pleased that more than a million pension savers will benefit from our push to curb excessive charges in legacy schemes.

“Nevertheless, some people are still at risk of high charges, so I shall be seeking assurances from the providers of those schemes, that they will be taking steps to resolve this issue.”