GIVEN the furore caused by recent changes announced by the Government aimed at giving people greater access to their pension savings, you’d think that the answer to the headline question would be a resounding ‘yes’. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case.

The fact is that a great deal of pension providers will not be in a position to just ‘turn on the tap’ when the changes come into effect this coming April. A great many of our pensions are locked up in old, outdated contracts and many of these are just not set up from an administrative perspective to cope with the anticipated flood of people wanting to access them straight away.

Whilst in principle I agree with the aim of giving people better and more flexible access to their own money, I do think this is a blatant political move by the government to a) buy more votes in the run up to the forthcoming election; and b) get much-needed revenue into the exchequer’s coffers through tax receipts on the taxable part of your pension.

Toby Strauss, a chief executive at Scottish Widows, has said that his company are taking on 400 new staff to cope with what they assume will be a threefold increase in call volumes from customers.

The Government’s own pension-wise scheme would be seen to be under a great deal of pressure from time constraints too. They announced that all those ‘retiring’ on these new schemes will be offered free impartial face-to-face advice on how to get the most out of the changes.

However, just last week, Citizen’s Advice, one of the organisations charged with giving this advice, announced that out of its 316 offices in England and Wales, only 44 are in a position to offer face-to-face advice with three to seven staff in each office. Recruitment is apparently ongoing in all the other offices.

Just where they are going to find all these people with a background in pensions, heaven only knows.

The Pension Advisory Service, who will be responsible for giving telephone advice, have stated that new recruits must have at least five years of experience working in pensions and a qualification.

It should be remembered that there is a world of difference between guidance and advice in a regulatory environment and there is a very real fear that we could see another miss-selling scandal just around the corner. These concerns have not been helped by the speed at which politicians are pushing these changes through.

What may well happen in many instances is that people will be advised on which route to take and when they approach their pension provider they will be told that they cannot take all their money out like they have been told they could as the contract is not set up to facilitate this.

My advice is to take your time after 6th April and seek sound professional and regulated assistance.

You can get in touch with Billy by calling his freephone number: 0800 321 3508. Or you can reach him via the website, www.williamgeorge.info, where there is a contact page, or email him directly: w.george@ifswm.com.

GIVEN the furore caused by recent changes announced by the Government aimed at giving people greater access to their pension savings, you’d think that the answer to the headline question would be a resounding ‘yes’. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case.

The fact is that a great deal of pension providers will not be in a position to just ‘turn on the tap’ when the changes come into effect this coming April. A great many of our pensions are locked up in old, outdated contracts and many of these are just not set up from an administrative perspective to cope with the anticipated flood of people wanting to access them straight away.

Whilst in principle I agree with the aim of giving people better and more flexible access to their own money, I do think this is a blatant political move by the government to a) buy more votes in the run up to the forthcoming election; and b) get much-needed revenue into the exchequer’s coffers through tax receipts on the taxable part of your pension.

Toby Strauss, a chief executive at Scottish Widows, has said that his company are taking on 400 new staff to cope with what they assume will be a threefold increase in call volumes from customers.

The Government’s own pension-wise scheme would be seen to be under a great deal of pressure from time constraints too. They announced that all those ‘retiring’ on these new schemes will be offered free impartial face-to-face advice on how to get the most out of the changes.

However, just last week, Citizen’s Advice, one of the organisations charged with giving this advice, announced that out of its 316 offices in England and Wales, only 44 are in a position to offer face-to-face advice with three to seven staff in each office. Recruitment is apparently ongoing in all the other offices.

Just where they are going to find all these people with a background in pensions, heaven only knows.

The Pension Advisory Service, who will be responsible for giving telephone advice, have stated that new recruits must have at least five years of experience working in pensions and a qualification.

It should be remembered that there is a world of difference between guidance and advice in a regulatory environment and there is a very real fear that we could see another miss-selling scandal just around the corner. These concerns have not been helped by the speed at which politicians are pushing these changes through.

What may well happen in many instances is that people will be advised on which route to take and when they approach their pension provider they will be told that they cannot take all their money out like they have been told they could as the contract is not set up to facilitate this.

My advice is to take your time after 6th April and seek sound professional and regulated assistance.

You can get in touch with Billy by calling his freephone number: 0800 321 3508. Or you can reach him via the website, www.williamgeorge.info, where there is a contact page, or email him directly: w.george@ifswm.com.