Dr. Claire Keane:

The more similar we can keep the two systems, the better. As Dr. Roantree said, in the UK and the US the authorities just continued on with the system that was already in place - the system of relief. I assume that would be the same sort of rules on the amounts by which people can top up and age limitations. This is a really complicated decision for people and auto-enrolment takes the decision away from them and does something we know will benefit them in the longer term. If we are complicating it by having dual schemes - even when I am looking at my pension I struggle to make sense of it sometimes. People struggle with these decisions. The less pressure we put on people, the better it will be for them in the context of having to make decisions and figure out what is going to be beneficial in the longer term, such as whether they should move employer, whether they are better off staying where they are. It is about trying to eliminate those sort of decisions for people. If we feel there is something wrong with the system, that should be tackled as a whole. Do we want these systems of tax relief, do we want these limits? The Government should look at that as a whole, not just for the auto-enrolment scheme but for the entirety of pensions systems across the board.