House of Lords MP, Baroness Jeannie Drake, has encouraged guidance to be integrated in the pensions dashboard in an attempt to improve savers’ decision-making.

Speaking at the Association of British Insurers' annual conference, Drake encouraged the industry and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to “combine a pension dashboard with guidance”, as she was worried that the dashboard alone would not help people make better retirement savings decisions.

She continued: “I’m a great believer in guidance, but I don’t actually think guidance of itself will lead people to make optional decisions unless you have retirement solutions available to them.

“I worry that people would see all their data and this would just reinforce poor behaviour because you have even more information to exercise sub-optimal decisions on.”

While speaking at the conference, Drake also highlighted shortcomings in the drawdown market and that she felt the industry could be more honest with customers about its charges.

Drake said: “I read the FCA report saying ‘you should tell your customers in drawdown what you’re charging them’.

“Why wouldn’t you tell your customers? Why are we waiting to see whether you have to impose on your customers that you’re telling them what their charges are in drawdown?

“We made the decision that we give to the market responsibility to supporting private pension system for the whole of the UK, so why are we being coy when we see inefficiencies in that market?

“I would be tougher on failures in the market.

“When you’re relying on the market and you don’t have alternative solutions you need to be tougher on the efficiency of that market in delivering what you want.”

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