Some 42% of respondents believe that pensions will form a less significant part of benefits in the future, according to research by Aon Hewitt.
Its Pensions administration survey 2015, which is based on 243 responses from pension professionals, also found that just over half (53%) of respondents view their defined benefit (DB) pension scheme as their primary scheme.
The research also found:
- 60% of respondents believe the pension freedoms will fundamentally change the decisions that staff need to make, yet just over half (51%) do not currently deliver segmented pensions communication to their staff and have no plans to do so.
- Around a third (31%) cannot say what proportion of pension scheme members will be 55 next year.
- 70% currently outsource their pension scheme administration.
Stephen Ruse (pictured), UK outsourcing commercial director at Aon Hewitt, said: “It seems that pensions administration has hit a brick wall on several issues. On one level, our survey respondents indicated that the quality of administration has remained constant, with a respectable 52% of respondents saying it has at least remained static, a figure that is consistent with our last two surveys.
“However, the themes we saw in last year’s survey around data quality also remain. Some 21% of respondents said that the quality of their data will hinder the delivery of guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) reconciliation projects, while 20% said that it will add to the cost.
“If I was to make one recommendation for 2016 it would be that any scheme that hasn’t undertaken a data cleanse in the last 12 months should do so.”