The FCA, through its latest consultation, the Advice Guidance Boundary Review, is looking at ways of introducing experts – financial advisers – further into the equation, in a way that can deliver some kind of support, without it costing too much, or the advisers committing too much.
Similarly, the introduction of the pensions dashboard, may, in a more passive sense, direct people to websites showing them how much has actually been saved in their name, and prompt them to take more interest.
But the task is gargantuan. Some may wonder why we did not devise a more comprehensive system when drafting AE in the first place.
Webb says: "The reason is, it's still early days, and it had to be phased in gradually. They reckon there will be £1tn by 2030."
In fact, he adds they did legislate for the next iteration of the system, the pot follows member concept, in 2014, but he never got the chance to implement it.
Some, notably The Investing and Saving Alliance and the Association of British Insurers, are calling for some kind of long-term joined up policy on retirement savings, with Tisa seeking a commission of some kind to look at the whole area of paying for retirement in the round, and presumably to have buy in for the changes that they feel need to be made.
The impression however, is that the chancellor is in a hurry, not least to invest some of the pension money into British businesses, and these kind of commissions take years.
Levels of contribution
Another factor that is hard to ignore is the issue of contributions. Employers only need to make a 3 per cent contribution, on top of the 4 per cent from employees and 1 per cent tax relief.
In Australia, employers are required by law to pay in 11 per cent, rising to 12 per cent next year; employees can make further contribution if they wish. There appears to be little appetite as yet to have a big discussion on that.
The other elephant in the room is the political environment in which we are operating. There may be an election later in the spring or in the autumn, and it is looking uncertain for the Conservatives, going by opinion polls.
As with most other policies, the Labour party has not said much about what they would do on pensions, except in their financial services paper, "Financing growth: Labour's plan for financial services", published in January.
In it, the party said: "For DC schemes, Labour will give TPR new powers to bring about consolidation where schemes fail to offer sufficient value for their members."
