Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pension Wise guidance service, what information her Department holds on the (a) demographic characteristics of and (b) actions and decisions taken as a result of that guidance being sought by people who have completed a (i) telephone appointment, (ii) face-to-face appointment and (iii) digital journey with that service in the 12 month period ending October 2018.

Information on demographic characteristics of Pension Wise Customers and actions and decisions taken as a result of the guidance are published in the Pension Wise Service Evaluation. The latest published report covers 2016/17 and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/653621/pension-wise-service-evaluation-full-year-findings.pdf

The demographic profiles of telephone and face-to-face customers are given and compared in Section 2: Customer profiles (pages 4-9). The steps and decisions taken by Pension Wise appointment customers are covered in Section 7: Steps taken and Section 8: Making a decision (pages 32-42).

The Pension Wise Service Evaluation report for 2017/18 is forthcoming and will be similarly available on GOV.UK once published. The sampling for the annual Service Evaluation surveys is based around appointments delivered in the autumn of each year. As there are few seasonal differences in customer profiles, we would expect the data in the successive reports to reflect the profiles, experiences and outcomes of customers across the financial year that they relate to.

The Service Evaluation for 2018/19, is currently in the field and publication of the report is expected to be in Autumn 2019.

Customers completing the digital journey are not covered by the published research findings or the forthcoming report. We are looking to include this channel in the 2018/19 Pension Wise Service Evaluation survey sampling and reporting.