Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb says the fact people come up to him to “shake me by the hand rather than the neck” shows the pensions freedoms have been a success.

Mr Webb was speaking at the Morningstar Conference in London this afternoon.

Mr Webb said people have come up to him in the street to congratulate him on his role in the pension reforms – a key sign that the policy was right, he said.

He had been asked if the freedoms could be considered a success or not.

He said: “One sign is that pensions have become popular, people want to sit next to (people like us) us at wedding parties.”

He added it was a case of people saying, for example, “whose business is it to tell me I shouldn’t spend the money on my daughters wedding?”.

He said the pensions Freedoms were “partly about making auto enrolment work” and it was also due to “all the bad press with annuities” but he admitted it had been easier to sell the idea when a Minister was able to tell the Treasury it would help bring in money through taxes.

Have #pension freedoms been a success? @EmmaSmWall chats with @PensionsMonkey, @stevewebb1, & Tony Stenning @uktisa this afternoon @ #MICUK pic.twitter.com/ew6lwjKlxl

— Morningstar, Inc. (@MorningstarInc) May 9, 2017

Asked about the reforms, Tom McPhail from Hargreaves Lansdown said: “I think it was brilliant politics, I really do think it was a stroke of genius. It has popularised pensions.

“I think it also dealt with the particular problem with monetary policy and low interest rates and where people effectively forced to buy annuities and this was swept away. I think it was pretty clever stuff.”

He warned however, that in relation to the issue of pension holders getting professional financial advice, that there was
“serious unfinished business” with the FAMR and he said it risked being a missed opportunity.

He said this was a “crucial element of the equation”.

Hundreds of thousands of people need the sector to bridge the gap to afford advice, he said.