The Department for Work and Pensions today publishes a Working Paper which presents the findings from research exploring the administrative costs of running occupational pension schemes. The research provides a broad assessment of the scale and range of costs involved in administration of pension schemes.
The key findings were as follows:
- Responding trustee boards with schemes containing 12-999 members tended to face higher running costs per member than trustee boards with 1,000+ members in their schemes.
- Respondents reported that the annual cost of employing professionals was highest for investment managers at a mean cost per member per year of £63 and lowest for independent financial advisers (for members) at less than £1 per member per year.
- The most commonly cited priority for deregulation was reducing the levies (spontaneously cited by 12 per cent of responsing schemes), followed by reducing scheme valuation/audit requirements (ten per cent). Schemes perceived the general and PPF levy to be a significant cost.
Notes for Editors:
- DWP Working Paper No. 91 - ‘Pension scheme administration costs’ is available on the DWP website: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs-index.asp
- The research was conducted on behalf of the Department by Ipsos-MORI.
- The research was not designed to provide nationally representative estimates but indicative figures for the range and scale of costs of operating occupational pension schemes.