HM Treasury has announced that the Government intends to set up a single financial guidance body to deliver debt advice and money and pensions guidance to the public. Earlier this year, the Government consulted on setting up a two body delivery model for Government-sponsored guidance. This included replacing the Money Advice Service with a new, streamlined, money guidance body, and bringing together the Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise into a new pension guidance body. Following the industry’s and consumer finance groups’ concerns, the Government has decided that a single body would be better able to respond to the different financial guidance needs of consumers, making it easier for them to get access to the help they need to make effective financial decisions. The next steps will involve consulting on the best way to design a single body model, so legislation to create new public financial guidance bodies will not be included in the Pensions Schemes Bill.

View Government to set up single public financial guidance body, 9 October 2016