The number of guiders working for government-backed Pension Wise is to be cut by a third as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reins in spare capacity.
Full-time Pension Wise guiders will reduce from about 287 in 2015/16 to 185 in 2016/17 as the government aims to reduce the overall budget for the service by a quarter.
The DWP said this is the inevitable result of reducing spare capacity in the service.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We deliberately built extra capacity into the Pension Wise service at the start to ensure that anyone could make an appointment, regardless of where they lived in the UK.
“Pension Wise has now been running for nearly a year and we are in a better position to plan capacity. We are actively working with our delivery partners to ensure we have the right resources in the right places.”
The decision is part of a general overhaul in the way the government provides financial information to the public.
The government released plans at the last Budget to merge The Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise and said it would close the Money Advice Service.
Pension Wise is one element of the government’s strategy established following the introduction of pensions freedom post-6 April 2015. It offers free ‘guaranteed guidance’ for savers approaching retirement.
It is operated over the phone by TPAS and in person by Citizens Advice. It is funded in part by a levy on financial services firms, including advisers.
Financial advisers currently contribute 12% of its annual running costs.
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