Dr. Laura Bambrick:

I was not aware of that. The Deputy asked if a portion of the total auto-enrolment contribution could have a defined benefit element for the purpose of at least guaranteeing a return. A concern of congress is that we are more or less requiring workers - there is an element of compulsion as there is a small window if people want to opt out - to put 6% of their pay into a second-tier pension. How can we guarantee that they will have some return? Our understanding is that with the limited number of schemes that will be introduced, there will be some sort of timing factor. When people reach a certain age they will automatically go into a low-risk plan, which in itself will guarantee a minimum. There will not be a minimum floor, however.

Ultimately, congress would argue the best protection for workers in the auto-enrolment is not allowing this to be divvied up by commercial pension providers. There should either be a public fund or congress is currently looking at an employer-worker master trust. Instead of being profit-driven, this would be led for the worker's benefit. That is how we are looking to protect the best interests of workers.