There is more to be done to improve auto-enrolment, the pensions minister has said, as he called the policy an "incomplete structure".
Speaking at the Lang Cat Live event in London today (February 8), Paul Maynard said the scheme was a success but it required further work to improve it.
"It is not yet complete, the true vision has not been delivered," Maynard said.
"Some of the shortcomings of the current system that need to be built upon are around the £10,000 threshold."
This comes after his recent announcement that the auto-enrolment threshold would remain at £10,000 for 2024/25.
There was consensus among industry experts that this was not the right time to tinker with the level at which an individual's salary opts them in for automatic enrolment, given the cost of living crisis.
The Lang Cat's director of public affairs, Tom McPhail, who had asked the minister about his decision to freeze the threshold, pointed out it could still mean people on low salaries were sacrificing income and quality of life now to save into their pension.
Maynard agreed it was a tough decision to have made.
"I have a very low income constituency...at what point do I want people to start spending for that pension versus having that money available in their day to day lives, that is a very fine balance to strike," he said.
"I like to see them thinking about the future but there is the risk of them slipping into worse poverty."
Maynard added there were wider issues to look at, including for those who go into family businesses and earn below the threshold, and therefore do not save for their retirement.
The minister, who has been in the job for just a month, was also pressed by McPhail on when the age threshold for auto-enrolment would be reduced from 22 to 18-years-old.
It had been recommended in a review in 2017 and the government previously said it would be implemented in the mid-2020s.
Maynard said a date for these changes was yet to be announced.
However, he added: "I know how important is...so it has my full support and within government."
tara.o'connor@ft.com
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