Webb signals shift away from AMD ban

Pensions minister Steve Webb today hinted at his reluctance to legislate to ban active member discounts (AMDs) in pension schemes.

Webb had previously vowed to tackle pension schemes' practice of charging members who have left the scheme more to manage their pot.

In October, the government added the power to cap these charges into the Pensions Bill.

However, Webb said he would prefer to eradicate AMDs by creating a system in which pension pots transferred automatically into employees' new schemes when they move jobs.

This way, he said, there would be no deferred members for pension schemes to charge premiums on.

"Legislation on deferred member charges is an option but we would prefer people to know where their money is," said Webb.

In December, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) published a consultation on creating a universal system for automating pension transfers, dubbed by Webb as "Operation Big Fat Pension Pot".