Former Financial Planner Rob Roberts, MP for Delyn (North Wales), told the House of Commons that the UK could find itself gripped by a retirement crisis if savers’ attitudes towards Financial Planning and advice did not change.

Mr Roberts warned that financial advice is often viewed as too high cost and that pension savers worry they do not have enough money to invest to take it.

He said the advice sector needs to become more transparent if a retirement crisis is to be avoided.

He told the House of Commons at a debate on the future of pensions policy that the advice sector needs to offer flat fees to overcome the mistrust of consumers around the financial services industry.

He told the House: “It would help boost consumers’ trust and confidence that they were getting the right advice if the advice sector were more transparent.

“The inherent unfairness of percentage-based charging is clear. It is simply wrong to charge double the fee for handling a £200,000 investment compared with a £100,000 investment; it takes no more time and no more resource to do the work.

“Whether that is because people feel that financial advice is unaffordable or only for the wealthy, or because they feel it is a risk and do not trust the financial services industry, we need to work actively to change those perceptions and show that financial advice is for everyone.”