OMO more important than pensions/earnings link- McPhail

Re-linking pensions with earnings will not profit retirees as much as knowledge of the open market option (OMO), says Hargreaves Lansdown's Tom McPhail.

Both the Tories and Liberal Democrats have pledged to immediately restore the link between the basic state pension and earnings if they take power on 6 May.

But head of pensions research McPhail, who is also chariman of the Pensions Income Choice Association, says if politicians want to support people better in retirement they should push the OMO, instead of point-scoring over the earnings link.

"Shopping around for a pension will deliver a more significant improvement in provision over the next five years, the life of the next Parliament, than re-linking pensions with earnings," McPhail says.

McPhail wants the OMO annuity, which allows retirees to shop around, to be the default option.

He is also calling for the creation of a Minister for Savings within the next Cabinet to promote savings and pensions.

"All the parties should be focussed on getting people saving, but instead they are talking up free eye tests," he says, referring to the leaders' answers during the first Prime Ministerial debate.

"They don't do it because pensions are not seen as sexy."

In 2009, ABI data suggested 63% of pensioners were not opting for the OMO when buying a retirement income product - equating to around £7bn worth of "un-optimised" funds.

McPhail is critical of what is "still an extremely complex landscape for pensions".

Director of life and savings at the ABI Maggie Craig says the trade body is working on taking advantage on the momentum behind auto-enrolment to get the message across about pensions.

"We are talking to the DWP about getting good quality communications on pensions.

"The window of opportunity is there to get out and convince people saving is good for them, using auto-enrolment as a spring board."

Auto-enrolment in the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) scheme will start with businesses employing 120,000 in October 2012.

Medium-sized businesses will be enrolled between 1 April 2013 and 1 July 2014 depending on the number of employees. Meanwhile, small businesses with less than 50 staff will have between 1 March 2014 and 1 March 2016 depending on their PAYE number.