Pension providers are voicing concerns that the Government's Combined
Pension Statement may confuse the public about their pension entitlement.
They fear the statement, which provides pension planholders with estimates
for their retirement income by combining details of private pensions and
state benefits, could lead to people expecting more income than they will
get.
Each provider is expected to provide customers with details of what they
can exp ect in retirement but firms are concerned that there will be a lot
of duplication over the amount of state benefits for those who have plans
with more than one provider.
There is concern that life offices will use only one projection rate while
the FSA requires three rates to be calculated to take account of varying
investment performance.
Life offices say that pro viding comparisons will be difficult, claiming
it is hard to provide projections for occupational schemes and
problematical to show other benefits on a like for like basis such as
indexation and wid ows benefits.
CGU head of pensions strategy Jerry Barnfield says: “The only way
providers can give accurate up to date information about state benefits is
by having access to DSS data.”
