Earlier today pensions minister Guy Opperman confirmed he is not to continue in the role under new Prime Minister Liz Truss.
He announced this morning he was relieved of the role on 8 September.
He had served as pensions minister since June 2017 and his five-year tenure made him one of the longest serving pensions ministers.
The industry has reacted to his departure by saying how his departure marks the end of a period of both stability and change for pensions.
Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Mr Opperman brought stability to pensions.
She said: “After something of a revolving door policy at the DWP the five-year stint of Guy Opperman brought much needed stability to the pensions brief. He helped shepherd auto-enrolment through its first decade with enormous success -over 10m people have been brought into workplace pension saving.
“However, the pressure is on as to where auto-enrolment goes next and Opperman was under pressure to put forward a timetable for implementation of the 2017 Auto-enrolment Review. This aims to bring more people into auto-enrolment by lowering the minimum age from 22 to 18 and allowing them to start saving into a pension from the first pound of earnings.
“The timing of this also needs to be balanced against sky high inflation putting pressure on people’s pockets today. The latest HL Savings and Resilience Barometer produced with Oxford Economics shows our pension savings are already falling behind where we need to be for a comfortable retirement but that any move to boost pension saving could have a major impact on our financial resilience today. Any new minister needs to look at these short-term issues while ensuring long-term savings are properly incentivised.”
Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at investment platform AJ Bell, said: “Guy Opperman has been a relatively rare phenomenon in modern political times – a pensions minister given sufficient time in the job to genuinely engage with retirement issues.
“He leaves office having pushed forward a huge legislative agenda, including shepherding automatic enrolment, laying the groundwork for pensions dashboards and driving improved climate disclosure in workplace pensions.
“While there will always be points of agreement and disagreement between industry and the relevant minister, Opperman was passionate, challenging and relentlessly focused on improving outcomes for savers. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, said that Mr Opperman’s wealth of pensions expertise will be missed.
She said: “Opperman bought a period of stability to the Pensions Minister role, we hope this will continue. His tenue has clearly demonstrated that he had a lot of ideas, but it takes time to deliver them, from consultation, to legislation to implementation. Fewer and more focused initiatives may have meant increased impact.
“We hope there will be a smooth transition to the new Pension Minister, who will need to get up to speed quickly. Pensions can be a challenging topic, with many different angles. One of the benefits of Opperman’s long tenue is that he was able to build up a wealth of expertise and clearly demonstrated his passion for improving pensions.
“The new Pensions Minister will have a lot on their plate with many issues vying for attention. Pension policy has been a hive of activity in recent years, and there’s still much unfinished business, but a new Minister will bring fresh thinking.”
