Just Retirement: British pensioners missing out on £500 million

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Just Retirement: British pensioners missing out on £500 million

Fri 20th Jun 2008

Pensioners could be losing out on £500 million a year, Just Retirement has estimated.

The retirement adviser said that customers were not being made aware of the open market option (OMO) to be assessed on whether they qualify for enhanced annuity.

An OMO allows pensioners to transfer their funds to a different plan provider.

David Cooper, marketing director at Just Retirement, said there was "continued evidence" that customers were not being told about the OMO option.

He called for "greater guidance" for people entering retirement to enable them to claim the income that is "rightfully theirs".

A survey by financial website thisismoney.co.uk, published this week, found that awareness of the open market option was "not increasing", and that few companies could provide historical data on the number of customers using it.

The survey found that of those who could, including HSBC Life, Prudential and Scottish Life, there was "little evidence that more people are shopping around", although Friends Provident was declared an "honourable exception".

NFU Mutual and Scottish Life said more customers were using OMO this year, according to the survey.

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