A director at Aegon has blasted today’s revelation that advisers will have to pay £175m in levy payments to the FSCS as “unfair”.

UK inflation fell to 2.1% in December, from 2.3% the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Experts have hailed the onset of a ban on pensions cold calling which came into force today.

The State Pension is 110 years’ old this week but an increasingly ageing population could spell future uncertainty according to experts.

The launch, by the FCA and The Pensions Regulator yesterday, of a joint regulatory strategy aimed at taking action to deliver better outcomes for pension consumers has been backed by the profession.

The use of the wrong platform to launch a petition against scrapping the pensions dashboard mean that the issue will not be debated in Parliament, despite surpassing 100,000 signatures.
 
The petition, which has so far reached 130,768 signatures, was set up on the 38 Degrees website, but to qualify for Parliamentary time petitions must be created on the official petition.parliament.uk website.

Aegon has slammed the process as “smacking of Yes, Minister bureaucracy.”
 
The petition calls on Work and Pensions Secretary, Esther McVey, to keep to previous Government pronouncements and to follow through with delivery of the pensions dashboard.
 


Normally once a petition reaches 100,000 signatures it is considered for debate in Parliament, but only if petitions filed use the Government’s petition service.
 
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said: “It’s ridiculous in this digital age that the Government insists on people using its own petition service to get something debated in Parliament, and smacks of Yes, Minister bureaucracy.

“The pensions dashboard is an important consumer-facing initiative and one that is backed not only by the pension industry but by many others.

“The fact that over 130,000 people have signed the petition in a matter of weeks shows people’s passion for the pensions dashboard and has generated welcome publicity.

“The Government needs to acknowledge this and debate the issue in Parliament.”

Retirees using the Pensions Freedoms are demanding more flexibility on income withdrawal and driving demand for financial advice.

Many pension savers believe they will be working either full or part time when they reach the age of 70.

Aegon has warned that concerns over investing in unregulated investments could damage how consumers view SIPPs despite few SIPPS allowing unregulated investments.