Equiniti Pension Solutions reports a surge in people engaging with their pensions online following the UK budget announcement in March, which made
access to pension savings more flexible.
The UK budget this year scrapped the requirement for retirees in defined contribution pension schemes to buy an annuity.
The pensions software provider, which has over 850,000 members with access to self-service capabilities, saw a 2,500% increase in members registering for self-service in April, as numbers sprung from 500 members in March to over 13,400 members in the following month.
The trend reached its peak in May, when over 25,000 members registered for online self-service. The number of visitors logging onto the site also increased from fewer than 500 in March to 6700 in April and over 11,000 in May.
Richard Llambias, implementations manager at Equiniti Pension Solutions, says: “The very nature of pensions as a long-term contract means that we would not expect members to access their online accounts frequently.
The budget stimulated a significant interest in people wanting to view their pension details and we expect this interest to continue, even if it’s just an annual check and proactively updating personal details.”
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