PS21/21: The stronger nudge to pensions guidance: feedback on CP21/11 and final rules and guidance

Read PS21/21 (PDF)[1]

What we are changing

From 1 June 2022 pensions providers must give consumers a stronger nudge to Pension Wise guidance when they decide to access their pension savings. Providers will be required to refer customers to Pension Wise guidance and explain the nature and purpose of this guidance.  

These changes implement a requirement set by Parliament and are designed to increase take-up of the Pension Wise service, which offers free and impartial guidance to consumers about the options for accessing their defined contribution (DC) pension savings.  

Who this applies to

This policy statement primarily affects pension providers, including operators of self-invested personal pensions. It will also be relevant to stakeholders with an interest in the pensions and retirement income sector, including: 

• individuals and firms providing advice and information in this area 
• distributors of financial products, especially retirement income products 
• trade bodies representing financial services firms 
• consumer representative bodies 
• charities and other organisations with an interest in retirement and/or financial services 
• individual consumers

Next steps

This Policy Statement sets out the feedback we received to our consultation proposals and our response, including the minor technical changes we have made to our final rules based on this feedback. Affected firms must comply with our final rules by 1 June 2022. 

This Policy Statement also summarises the responses we received to the discussion questions included in CP21/11. These questions covered further ways of helping consumers access Pension Wise and other guidance at the most useful time in their pensions journey.  

We will consider this feedback alongside that received to our joint Call for Input[2] with The Pension Regulator on the Pensions Consumer Journey, to consider and target future evidence-based regulatory interventions. If we decide to progress any additional measures we will consult on detailed proposals at a later stage.