This is a fascinating and shocking story. The main problem with the auto-enrolment pensions system seems to be that the middleware that links Company X’s payroll solution to the pension fund is stupidly expensive. And I mean stupidly expensive, like £50 a signup plus £50 a year per-head recurring.
As a result, the financial advisers whose fees the policy is meant to get rid of are offering to do it, as long as they get to charge what they used to charge. The insurers are sort of keen because it gets rid of the problem and replaces the commissions they paid to the advisors. And the public-sector option, NEST, is specifically banned from providing software because that would distort the market. Which seems to be a totally opaque duopoly that’s in cahoots with the insurers and financial advisers.
Also, is it just me or is “automatic enrolment” not actually very automatic at all?