Apart from defined benefit pensions, "we don't have a pension system", just a long-term savings system, Baroness Jeannie Drake has said.

Speaking at the Trades Union Congress' conference on Tuesday 27 February, Drake highlighted the current issues around securing an income in retirement for defined contribution savers and stated: "At the moment, apart from DB we don't have a pension system, just a long-term savings system".

Looking at DB schemes, Drake opined that funding levels could be impacted post-Brexit. She explained that the effects of Brexit on British companies could, in turn, make a difference to DB funding as "they are the covenants".

In order to strengthen the current pensions landscape the panel discussed the need to extend the coverage of auto-enrolment. When asked whether Brexit will "de-rail" auto-enrolment, Drake said: "I don't think it will de-rail auto-enrolment as such, but it could de-rail improvements that build on the infrastructure that auto-enrolment operates on at the moment."

However, even after Brexit, Drake stated, "it all depends on what the economic consequences are" as, if they are not positive, increasing contribution levels, for example could be pushed further and "kicked into the long grass" into the 2020s.

Considering the upcoming contribution increases Drake added that the industry shouldn't assume that the contribution rise to eight per cent will be accepted by all. "It is absolutely key that most people stay in auto-enrolment and therefore that's why I am very sympathetic to the DWP" to get the policy right first before forcing contribution hikes.

Also speaking on the panel, Resolution Foundation director Torsten Bell echoed a similar view that: "We should be less assuming that inertia will remain when contributions rise to eight per cent." And, "we should be planning now, for what we will do if opt-out rates increase by 2020... If something goes wrong with opt-out rates, we would need a way to incentivise low-paid people to stay in the system," he said.

One way of doing this, Bell suggested, is "if we need to, to switch the tax-relief system around to be more bottom-heavy, and I would say a young-heavy way to keep these people in the system".

Nonetheless, Cicero co-founder and executive chairman Iain Anderson noted that regardless of whether contribution increases will have an impact on pension savings, he is "not getting the sense" that lifetime savings products, such as LISAs will be pushed by the government. As a result of this, more is needed to ensure people remain opted-in to their pensions and continue to increase their contribution levels, the panel agreed.

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