Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the publication of the master trust and GPP defaults report by Corporate Adviser magazine, whether her Department plans to reduce the protection on charges for members of occupational pension schemes used for automatic enrolment.

The DWP have no such plans. The Corporate Adviser report (available on request from https://corporate-adviser.com/) showed that the vast majority of pension savers are in schemes are able to invest in a range of diversified assets at prices well below the automatic enrolment charge cap. Therefore I do not intend to reduce member protections.

In my 2017 written statement HCWS249 (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-11-16/HCWS249/) I committed to reviewing the level and scope of the charge cap in 2020, alongside the suitability of ‘combination charges’ (where a percentage charge on funds is combined with a charge on contribution or a flat annual fee), to see whether a change is needed to protect members.