Consultation on guided retirement launched

The DWP, working with tPR and the FCA, has today launched a consultation on implementing guided retirement across trust-based and contract-based workplace pensions. The proposals would require providers to offer eligible DC savers a default pension designed to simplify the transition from saving to drawing retirement income. Members would retain freedom to choose another option. Default pensions would normally include protection against outliving savings, with a proposed £10,000 threshold assessed across an individual’s relevant pots held with the same provider, after any tax-free pension commencement lump sum.

The consultation covers eligibility, default pension design, transfers, member communications, governance and enforcement. Implementation would be phased, with most master trusts and FCA-regulated schemes expected to comply by summer 2029, and single-employer trusts by summer 2030, subject to consultation and Parliamentary agreement. Responses are invited by 22 December 2026.

The consultation and details of how to respond are available here.