Research and analysis

Workplace Pension Reforms: Baseline Evaluation Report (RR803)

This baseline report describes the landscape before the implementation of the Workplace Pension Reforms.

Documents

Workplace Pension Reforms: Baseline Evaluation Report (RR803): report

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Workplace Pension Reforms: Baseline Evaluation Report (RR803): summary

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Details

This baseline report describes the landscape before the implementation of the Workplace Pension Reforms. It follows from the Evaluation Strategy which set out the Department’s commitment to evaluate the reforms. This baseline is the first in a series of reports that will be published annually during the implementation of the reforms and will feed into the 2017 review as outlined in the Pensions Act 2008.

The report is structured around eight Evaluation Questions set out in the Evaluation Strategy. Analysis draws on a range of information such as Management Information Reports, existing continuous surveys of individuals and employers, panel data, dynamic models and research commissioned by the Department and the Pensions Regulator. It also provides further details about how the effects of the reforms will be monitored during implementation. The report was compiled by analysts in the Department’s Long-term Impact and Evaluation team.

The Workplace Pension Reforms are a response to some of the key challenges facing the UK pensions system. Once fully implemented, the reforms aim to increase the number of individuals newly saving or saving more in a workplace pension by around eight million, within a range of six to nine million and increase the amount that is being saved in workplace pensions by £11 billion a year, within a range of £8 billion and £12 billion per year (in 2012/13 earnings terms).

The Department and its partners in delivering the reforms, The Pensions Regulator and NEST (National Employment Savings Trust), will use the findings to monitor the effects of the reforms which are being implemented between October 2012 and October 2018. Subsequent reports will show progress against the intermediate policy aims to increase the number of individuals saving and the amount that is being saved and the longer term aims to increase pensioner incomes, reduce pensioner poverty and improve living standards for pensioners.

The Department will also continue to work with stakeholders to reflect their views on the scope of future reports and to identify information sources and ways to enhance the analysis.

Published 1 July 2012