Oct 8 2008

Govt response 'will lower pensions confidence'

The government's decision to raise the level of savings it will guarantee will have a negative impact on pensions confidence.

This is according to independent policy advisor Dr Ros Altmann, who described the move as "knee-jerk".

She added: "It's far safer now to put your money into a bank than a pension or any other long-term investment, because there is suddenly a 100 per cent guarantee, whereas the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or Pension Protection Fund only cover around 90 per cent up to a capped amount."

Dr Altmann went on to say that undermining pensions in this way is dangerous because it will discourage people from putting money into pension investments.

Meanwhile, figures produced recently by Defaqto suggested that 67 per cent of consumers questioned in a recent poll were not confident that any political party could sort out the UK's pension problems.

This compared to 57 per cent last year.

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