April 2026

UK. Why younger retirees are earning more from their pensions

Data on pensioner incomes were published last week, and it made for interesting reading. Pensioner incomes have remained stable over recent years, with average income after housing costs hitting £455 per week. However, looking a bit deeper there’s some interesting trends to pick out. Female pensioners continue to have lower pension incomes than men; single pensioner households get by on less than half of their coupled-up counterparts, and younger pensioner households have higher incomes than older ones. There’s also interesting data...

Pension Adecuacy – June 2025

By Hargreaves Lansdown To provide insights into the nation's retirement resilience, the Hargreaves Lansdown Savings and Resilience Barometer includes the Pension Value indicator. This indicator evaluates the expected financial resilience of households in retirement. It does this by comparing their current pension savings against the level of saving needed to achieve a benchmark income in retirement. The Pension Value indicator is currently underpinned by the Pension and Lifetime Saving Association’s (PLSA) moderate living standard in retirement benchmark. However, there are a...

March 2026

UK. PMI: Why a new pension system needs a new regulatory approach

The latest of the Pensions Management Institute’s (PMI’s) regular columns says the question is no longer how we regulate schemes, but how we regulate a system. For years, policymakers and the industry have anticipated defined contribution (DC) consolidation. That future has now arrived. Master trusts now dominate both DC membership and assets, smaller schemes continue to exit the market, and the landscape is increasingly shaped by a small number of large providers. Yet our regulatory framework still reflects an earlier,...

UK. Pension investment in affordable housing constrained by ‘practical barriers’

Pension investment in affordable housing is being constrained by a series of practical barriers, rather than a lack of capital or willingness to invest, a report from Nest Insight has shown. Its research, which explored whether money from pension funds could help build more social and affordable homes, highlighted two ‘parallel crises’ in the UK housing system. These were a crisis of home ownership for those who cannot afford to buy a house, and a crisis of options for people living...

UK. Only 14 per cent of people ‘on track’ to retire when they want

Just 14 per cent of people are on track to retire when and how they want, with large gaps between expectation and reality, research by savings platform Flagstone has found. The survey findings revealed that, on average, respondents would like to retire at age 61. However, based on current savings and contribution levels, most will not be able to retire until the age of 83 – revealing a 22-year discrepancy. The findings are broken down by industry, with only 4.7 per cent...

UK. CDC not expected to become ‘mainstream offering’ within the next three years

Two-thirds (67 per cent) of pension professionals do not believe that collective defined contribution (CDC) will be a mainstream workplace pension offering within the next three years, according to a survey of delegates at TPT’s recent Pensions Pathways conference. Meanwhile, a third (33 per cent) of survey respondents believed CDC schemes would be a mainstream workplace pension offering within three years. Speaking at the event, Vidett head of trusteeship, Alison Hatcher, urged the delegates to be “open minded right now”. “There are...

Majority of UK adults still unaware of IHT pension changes

Almost nine in 10 (89 per cent) UK adults have little or no awareness of the inheritance tax (IHT) pension changes to be introduced from next year, according to analysis from Standard Life. Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, revealed plans in the 2024 Autumn Budget to include pensions in IHT calculations from April 2027. This proposal became a reality when the Finance Bill received Royal Assent last week The government has estimated that 10,500 more estates will start paying IHT, and around 38,500 estates...

UK. Modern pensions policy has to move beyond ‘simple paternalism’

The pensions industry must prepare for a fundamental shift in saver behaviour driven by technology, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, has said, warning that policy must move beyond “simple paternalism” as engagement increases. Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Pensions and Savings Symposium 2026, Rathi said that forthcoming pensions dashboards and digital tools could significantly alter how consumers interact with their retirement savings. “Modern pensions policy has to move beyond that kind of simple paternalism,” he stated, arguing that...

UK. Pension transfer ‘sludge tactics’ eroding saver trust

Pension transfer delays and administrative barriers are undermining trust in the UK pensions system, Penfold co-founder and CEO, Chris Eastwood, has warned, amid growing scrutiny of so-called 'sludge tactics'. The comments come as a national debate over pension transfer practices has intensified, with growing public support for a legally enforceable 10-day guarantee to switch pensions. Industry data suggested that while average transfer times stood at around 10-12 days, this masked inconsistencies, with some providers completing transfers in under four days while others took more than...

UK. Pensions and savings hammered as threat of ‘full-scale economic war’ sends shares tumbling

More than £50billion was wiped off the value of the London stock market today – taking losses since the start of the war on Iran to £225billion. On a brutal day for savers with money tied up in shares through their pensions, ISAs and other investments, the FTSE 100 index tumbled more than 200 points or 2 per cent in early trading. The wider FTSE All-share – which includes smaller companies on the London stock market as well as the 100 blue chips...