So far, the perception is that DC schemes with £25bn in them will behave like they did when thy had £25m in them, what differs is  that they are now a source of revenue for organisations including consultancies, insurers and the Government’s Nest which want their investment back and a steady flow of income going forward.

But something is happening to these schemes which is important to their members, they are growing up and passing 55, many members of DC schemes are now stopping working and not choosing to rely on savings but having to.

I was asked yesterday whether I was a DC pension expert as if you could compare Direct Contribution savings to Defined Benefit pensions. I had no answer, I consider myself an advocate of pensions which means that right now I can only love DB pensions and the Royal Mail CDC. I would like to say that I , along with my colleagues , am pioneering a way to offer direct contribution pensions , but this is not yet recognised as a means to reward those who have saved into a workplace DC pension, with an income for life paid from the pension fund.

If I was to say that I was expert in how such a concept works, I would put my hand up. We have done the sums, know the capital that must back such a pension and understand the investment restrictions that make such a pension a minor concern to the PPF and its guardian – TPR. This I expect is what we will see in years to come as the DC savings pools convert back into pension schemes.

Creating an environment for this to happen is Government’s function and this is not something for discussion in a Spring Statement. It is the consideration for the Treasury and DWP and I expect it to form part of the Pension Bill (DC version if such a concept is to emerge). We know that the Government does not want to focus on DB matters in the Bill soon to be announced but I hope that in the Pension Minister’s head is a perception of DC pensions. I hope that he sees DC savings growing into DC pensions – either through collective DC (without guarantees on payments) or through offering DB pensions where the benefit is defined by the usual rules but the contribution is the savings that have formed a pot.

We cannot go on talking of “pots” as “pensions”, it is unfair on those who have no interest in pensions nor the finances or wish to purchase the services of a wealth manager. As this portion of the British workforce easily outweighs those wealthy enough to buy in advice, I would have hoped by now we would have developed default options for most people retiring , in the way we developed default contribution rates, default investment strategies and a default perception that between the state and private saving, we would be alright.

I am speaking at the Pension PlayPen  coffee morning today and will no doubt be asked why the “budget” (not a budget) we have just had did not address fiscal matters needed to make DC saving more attractive. It appears to be the obsession of the private pension brigade. The truth is that honouring the promise to the savings industry that they’d have more mandatory contributions by the middle of this decade is low on this Government’s agenda.

When addressing this question at his PLSA Edinburgh speech, Torsten Bell told 2,000 experts that he has better things to be doing for DC savers. He characterised this as “reforming decumulation“. We have a Kings Speech hinting at default spending of our pot but this seems to be low on the priorities of us DC savings experts (I’m not surprised).

The truth is that the DC pension does not yet exist and won’t until there is a requirement for DC savings schemes to offer savers an income for life as the standard (default) option for those at retirement.  There are no pension experts operating in the DC saving space because even Nest (which is £50bn) does not offer a pension to any of its 13m savers.

I am quite sure that will change. The unions don’t like freedom from pensions and those who are their members as well as the rest of us are getting increasingly old. I am 63 and have a pot an no pension, most of the people I know of my age are looking forward to a state pension (and maybe a DB pension) but mystified by what to do with their pension pots.

Tomorrow, ,my friend Richard Smith will be talking about their problem and how he plans for the Pension Dashboard to help them understand their lack of DC pension, or at least that’s what I discussed with him over the weekend!