Treasury Committee publishes correspondence with Chancellor on Money Advice Service

Commenting on the correspondence (which can be found on the Committee publications page), Andrew Tyrie MP, Chairman of the Treasury Committee, said:

“The Treasury Committee had serious concerns about the Government’s initial proposals – published at the time of the Budget – for providing the ‘guidance guarantee’. The revised proposals, outlined in October, were a big step in the right direction. In particular, it was clarified that the Treasury, not the MAS, is in the lead on delivering this guidance. Consumers need to have adequate access to guidance if they are to benefit from the extra flexibility offered by the Government’s pension reforms.

“However, the Treasury Committee remains very concerned that the crucial question of the MAS’s future as a statutory body has been excluded from the reviewer’s terms of reference.  In other words, the future of MAS has been taken off the independent reviewer’s agenda.

“The Committee’s inquiry uncovered a number of serious problems at the MAS. Efforts have been made to reform it.  But the jury remains out on whether the MAS should be retained in its current form. It is essential, as the Committee recommended, that the future of the MAS be included in the remit of the independent reviewer’s work.

“The Committee will, in any case, want to scrutinise the reviewer’s report in detail when it is published later this year.”