The Chancellor has announced the Government is to take action to “strengthen people’s rights to access their pensions flexibly”.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions today he said that the Treasury will consult to ensure that people are not charged excessive early exit penalties.

The Treasury said the Government will be working to remove “any unjustifiable barriers” to pension freedoms.

Mr Osborne said he wanted to ensure savers “are treated fairly when moving their pension to a company that offers them flexible options to access their savings”.

{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Harriett Baldwin, has written to Martin Wheatley, FCA chief executive, confirming that the FCA will, in tandem with the government’s consultation, gather information from providers to understand the scale of the problems facing individuals who want to transfer to a different pension provider.

The Treasury said that while the Government has already strengthened the right to transfer to a new pension scheme it was “clear that it wants all individuals to be able to transfer their pension easily, within a reasonable timeframe and at reasonable cost, so that they can take full advantage of the new flexibilities”.

The consultation, due to launch next month, will look at:

• options to address any excessive early exit penalties. These include, if there is evidence of such penalties, the option of imposing a legislative cap on these charges for those aged 55 or over
• making the process for transferring pensions from one scheme to another quicker and smoother, to help people make use of the new freedoms

Mr Osborne revealed yesterday that so far 60,000 people have taken advantage of pensions flexibilities.