The Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA) has responded to claims made by Punter Southall that the national pension saving scheme is set to fail.

Research by Punter Southall has shown that 80 per cent of companies are sceptical about the Personal Accounts scheme's chances of success upon implementation in 2012, and as a result have vowed to keep their current defined contribution (DC) pension scheme offerings in place.

The consulting group also found that only two per cent of the more than 300 companies surveyed were confident enough in their potential to offer a pure Personal Accounts pension scheme.

PADA has released a response stating that they do not expect "huge numbers of companies with existing provision" to use the personal accounts option across their workforce, and reiterated that Personal Accounts are designed to "complement existing provision".

The organisation, which was set up solely to design and deliver Personal Accounts, added that they believe the scheme may be useful for groups of employees within larger firms who are on short-term contracts or are in sectors that see a high turnover of staff.

In response to the management fee issue, PADA said they see the scheme delivering a 'good quality pension' with a charge of 0.5 per cent AMC.

- Pensions Age May 2009

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