Although the core model is for only one appointment, Steve Webb has conceded that more thought must go into whether retirees require more than this.
Talking to Parliament, he said the Government must think through what form this further guidance would take, but he revealed it was considering more flexibility.
In a House of Commons debate yesterday afternoon Andrew Love MP asked Mr Webb: "Will guidance be rationed to a once-only offer, or will the Financial Conduct Authority introduce some flexibility in that regard?"

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Mr Webb said: "Clearly, we want everybody to be able to access the guidance, so the core model is that a person does that once.
"But the Pensions Advisory Service has a business as usual role anyway and it is inconceivable that, even if a person has had their formal guidance session with the service and then rang it up the next day with a question, it would put the phone down on them; of course it would not, so there would be flexibility.
"Clearly, we need to think further on that. We need to reflect on the fact that if someone has a guidance session and then has additional needs, is a formal second guidance session appropriate or necessary or are there other ways of dealing with those needs?
"The core model is one session, but other resources, such as signposting, are available on tap. We are considering whether further flexibility could be introduced."
Retirees will call the service and state if they wish to have face-to-face or telephone-based guidance. This will then be at a set time on a set date.
There will be a period between the initial contact and the guidance appointment for the gathering of information to make the session more useful, Mr Webb explained. Coming out of that session the retiree will be handed documents and told where more information can be found, including on receiving regulated financial advice.

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