New research from leading online pension provider, PensionBee, finds that difficult processes deter pension savers from switching, more than any other essential service.

PensionBee discovered that only 26% of consumers found switching their pension provider easy, compared to 73% when it comes to home or contents insurance and 69% for energy providers. Difficulty transferring drives lower engagement with consumers, as more than a third of respondents (35%) report never having tried to change pension providers. This is compared to only 10% when it comes to both home or contents insurance, and energy providers.

Although pensions can be transferred electronically using a system called Origo Options, many providers still use paper-based transfer processes. The average switching time for electronic pension transfers is 12.5 days, in comparison to 34.4 days for paper-based transfer providers.

A 34.4 day average transfer time for paper-based providers is higher than the average transfer times of other essential services. Regulation requires that mobile phone contract switches must be completed in one day and bank account transfers require a saver’s current account and direct debits to be fully transferred within seven days of the request. While OFCOM rules and the Current Account Switch Guarantee have removed barriers to switching in these industries, outdated pensions legislation from 1993 currently permits pension providers to take up to six months to transfer a pension.

Only about 1 in 5 respondents (21%) feel very satisfied with the service from their pension provider, compared to 36% for current account and mobile phone providers, two essential services which guarantee switching in a week or less.

Clare Reilly, Chief Engagement Officer at PensionBee, comments: “While Auto-Enrolment has successfully brought millions of people into the pensions system, archaic pensions legislation keeps them stuck in 1993. Pensions urgently need basic consumer switching rights, like we see in other essential services and utilities. These switching rights will raise consumer power, effective competition, and help drive better engagement with pension saving. We call upon the government to legislate a 10-day pension switch guarantee.

At PensionBee, we’ve seen firsthand that customers appreciate simplicity and responsive customer service, qualities enabled by digital technology. In this day and age, no consumer should be put off switching providers due to lengthy transfer processes, paper and post. The technology to simplify pensions exists, and all providers must use it, giving consumers the ability to select the best plan for them so that everyone can look forward to a happy retirement.”

Appendix

Table 1: Transfer Times

Provider	Transfer times (days)
Mercer*	43.4
Hargreaves Lansdown	42.0
Capita*	37.0
LV=	27.2
B&CE	24.4
Towers Watson*	23.8
Now Pensions*	21.9
Quilter	21.2
NEST	17.2
MoneyBox	14.6
Prudential	15.0
Smart Pension*	13.8
Novia	13.7
True Potenial*	13.6
Hornbuckle (Embark Group)	13.0
Royal London	12.7
Aviva	11.0
Scottish Widows*	10.6
Standard Life	10.5
Aegon	9.8
Legal & General	9.8
PensionBee	0.5
Fidelity	8.5
Phoenix Group	9.4
ReAssure	9.3
Canada Life	7.5
MetLife	7.8
Zurich Group	7.9

Sources: Origo Transfer Index 1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021. All data is from Origo unless a provider does not use Origo or has chosen not to disclose its transfer times in the Origo transfer index. In those instances, PensionBee data has been used for the following providers marked with and sample sizes are indicated in brackets: Capita (>100), Mercer (>100), MoneyBox (>100), Now Pensions (>1,000), Scottish Widows (>1,000), Smart Pension (>1,000), Towers Watson (>100), True Potential (>100)*

Table 2: Average transfer times

Pension transfer type	Average transfer times (days)
Paper-based	34.4 days
Electronic	12.5 days

Source: Origo Transfer Index 1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021 and 554 paper-based pension transfers to PensionBee from Mercer, Capita, and Towers Watson.

Table 3: Average switch time by industry

Pensions (paper-based transfers)	Pensions (electronic transfers)	Energy	Current bank account	Mobile phone	Home insurance
34.4 days	12.5 days	17 days (1)	7 days (2)	2 days (3)	-

Source: Origo, PensionBee. Insurance is purchased annually and will auto-renew or expire, so switching times are not comparable.

Table 4: Levels of satisfaction

Levels of satisfaction	Current(bank) account provider	Home / contents insurance provider	Mobile phone contract provider	Energy provider	Pension provider
Very dissatisfied	1%	0%	0%	4%	1%
Dissatisfied	2%	2%	1%	7%	2%
Satisfied	48%	54%	48%	45%	47%
Very satisfied	36%	22%	36%	21%	21%
Indifferent	13%	22%	15%	24%	30%

Source: PensionBee, September 2021. Total respondents: 248. Numbers have been rounded

Table 5: Ease of switching

Ease of switching	Current(bank) account provider	Home / contents insurance provider	Mobile phone contract provider	Energy provider	Pension provider
Very difficult	2%	0%	1%	1%	6%
Difficult	6%	3%	6%	7%	13%
Very easy	21%	33%	27%	27%	12%
Easy	36%	40%	38%	42%	14%
Neither	14%	14%	14%	14%	20%
Don’t know / never tried	21%	10%	15%	10%	35%

Source: PensionBee, September 2021. Total respondents: 249. Numbers have been rounded.

Footnotes

PensionBee on Share Radio: how to combine and transfer pensions

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