The vast majority of people get their State Pension without advice and with the least support needed from its payer – the DWP.

There are things  which require support – having a baby – buying or selling a house;  but we don’t  see claiming  pensions and getting money paid into our accounts as needing much help.

But the pensions industry and especially the part that the FCA looks after, feels it needs to offer support for those who are taking the decision as to what to do with the money in their pot. Here are the options and people’s reaction to them.

About 15% denied any knowledge of a “retirement pack”, around a third of people who got a pack got or got onto a financial adviser. There were a range of actions taken including a contact with Pension Wise, a regulated adviser  or just paid attention to what they had in hand about their pot.

The big issues recognised by consumers were tax, how long the income would last and charges, inflation which had been higher in 2022 had fallen back towards 2020 levels. Most important secondary factors were information on scams , state of health and whether there was a partner who might have an interest, Annuity rates made it into the list for the first time last year but no discussion about investment of the money , even where the benefits were driven by investment returns. The issue of investment returns appears to be off discussion in information and guidance from the providers. It is an advisory issue but involves decisions needing to be made by those in non-advised drawdown.

The FCA are dubious that 59% of adults paid for “regulated advice” when they say they had taken advice. The FCA fall short of accusing a portion of the adults as “lying” but clearly there is concern that their definitions of advice do not fit with consumer definitions.

41% of people were clear they did not take advice and of these nearly three quarters said what amounted to there was “no need to take regulated financial advice”. Other reasons focussed around confidence/availability of advisers. It is worth considering what those questioned considered the implications of these questions, were they at fault for not taking advice, the FCA seem to think many of the 59% who claimed to be advised, may be feeling guilty like those who try to get well without seeing a doctor.

The excuses below are perhaps more honest in the eyes of the FCA.

The use of Pension Wise has been much discussed. Only 5% get a face to face interview, use by telephone is increasing, use of the website falling and overall awareness of Pension Wise is down to a quarter of people taking money. 40% of people are using Pension Wise one way or another.

75% of the 40% (or less than a third in all) thought Pension Wise was helpful, two thirds of people were rather less enthusiastic. These numbers compare very unfavourably to those of TPAS almost ten years ago (albeit TPAS was much less used as a percentage of savers)

It is not surprising that consumers considered the Government’s service wasn’t the only way to get information on private pensions, infact a wide variety of other sources of information has been quoted with variety of usage changing quite markedly between 2020 to 2024,

It is hard to make much sense of this information other than this is a chaotic market.

While the source of information varies, the value of this information remains consistent with over half thinking it helped a lot and the remainder thinking it helped a little (a few didn’t think it helpful. It is hard to work out whether this is meaningful or value for the money this guidance costed.

And so , to conclude this section we have the views of those who were bold enough to say that they did not need information or guidance , mainly because they knew better but for 20% because an adviser took the need for information and guidance- away. There are a variety of other reasons not to have taken guidance but it is clear that there is a large proportion of the retirees who are simply not engaging with the support put in place,

Government will have to consider whether these people are purposefully self-sufficient or simply can’t be bothered.

I like this book title page – it’s how I feel about sorting out my DC pension, I feel hands on and know that I’m making rather a mess of things.  That might be my being a Little Princess.