I’m sorry, I suspect some irony on Richard Smith’s agenda. It is a pretty grim world that has consolidation of its pension pots as its burning question..

But while Richard is promoting Martin Lewis, my next headline is from Britain’s #1 DC actuary Sophie Singleton (well along with Antonia Balaam and Kathryn Fleming and Nico Aspinall – whose actuarial capacity could be put to work turning pots to pensions) and the headline is nonsense

I don’t have time to cut and paste all the ABI inspired calls for more money into DC pensions but I had hoped that the Society of Pension Professionals’ (SPP’s) might have offered the DWP and Treasury more to think about than increasing the amount the Government wishes to take out of our pockets. It is out of our pocket because employers count pension costs as pay and increased pension costs limit pay rises.

Since its 2017 AE contribution review took place , eight years has passed. We are now at the “middle of the decade” and guess what – we are showing no inclination to become Australia. We are not showing any interest in losing our triple lock or to do what the Australian’s do and means test the State Pension like we do Pension Credit and Australia does its state pension.

If the consultants to and the providers of DC “pensions” have a serious intent to impress the taxpayer and hence the Government that we are getting VFM, let them come up with a way to convert pots into pensions without troubling the unloved annuity providers.

Will we stop trying to make pensions so bloody boring and start thinking of pensions as a means of packing in work so that we have unearned income that lasts as long as we do.

If I could see a pension at the end rather than just a pot of money, I’d be keen to invest for the security.

This is not an advert for Pensions, it’s the Sun’s estimate of the way people see the future and even Martin Lewis can convince me that gathering up my pots into this pot using a pension dashboard is going to stop me having to work.

Consolidation of , funding of, moaning about DC pension pots is not going to catch the imagination of a nation for whom a pension is what you get from the state or- if you’re lucky- from your job.

Kidding yourself that the public is dribbling at the context of a pot to help them consolidate or that the Government is going to demand more money gets paid into the same pots, is the kind of self-obsessed nonsense that we have become taken in by.

There is clearly no intention by this Government to force people to save more for pots. There is clearly little interest in a Government sponsored dashboard. The ABI and its ringleaders, the consultants who we call “pension professionals” are intent on reducing “pensions” to consolidating and funding pots while pensions are besmirched by the nonsense of our DC based system.