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Pensions Bill

The noble Baroness is talking about stranded pots, which could be a particularly restricted, technical area. These are what some people call ““zombie pots””. Many people to whom one talks, particularly those who are not well off, have little pots—£2,000 here, £3,000 there. They are hardly worth the bother and people do not know what to do with them. I talked earlier about how insurance companies are putting up charges and, similarly, this is not very economic for them. It seems to me that, for the reasons that we discussed in the debate on the last group of amendments, it must make sense to have a relaxed attitude towards letting people consolidate their little pots into personal accounts. I cannot for the life of me see why the insurance industry is so worried about this. If it is giving a good, cost-effective service to these people already, it should not worry. It would just be offering consumer choice. From the point of view of PADA, I do not see that this is bells and whistles. To be able to have a number of small pots coming in will, by definition, reduce your cost base because you will have a higher average pot and economies of scale. For the same reasons and principles that we were talking about on the last group, we oppose these amendments and are in favour of people having maximum flexibility to bring these little pots in.