The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Resilience has thrown its weight behind using the tax system to help the self-employed save for retirement.

In a report analysing general financial resilience during the coronavirus pandemic, launched on July 18, the group called for the government to “co-ordinate an approach to improving pension saving in under-pensioned groups”.

“This should involve an equivalent of automatically enrolling the self-employed into saving through the tax system,” it said.

The APPG also called for an increase in take-up of services such as Pension Wise in order to combat low levels of financial education and engagement in the UK.

The idea of using self-assessment tax returns to help the self-employed save into a pension received backing from the Pensions Regulator’s chief executive, Charles Counsell, at a June session with the Work and Pensions Committee.

Personal autonomy over pensions?
The idea, which has also been touted by former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, could involve using tax returns to default the self-employed into a pension with the ability to opt out, in a similar way to how auto-enrolment works.

In June, the government confirmed that the results of different trials of savings methods for the self-employed would be published this summer.

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