Research and analysis

Pension charges survey 2020: charges in defined contribution pension schemes

This report measures the types and levels of charges across defined contribution trust-based and contract-based workplace pension schemes.

From:
Department for Work and Pensions
Published
13 January 2021

Documents

Pension charges survey 2020 – research context note

HTML

Pension charges survey 2020 – summary

HTML

Pension charges survey 2020: charges in defined contribution pension schemes

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78659-289-7, 996

HTML

Pension charges survey 2020: charges in defined contribution pension schemes

Ref: ISBN 978-1-78659-289-7, 996

PDF, 796 KB, 143 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

A3 data collection template

ODS, 61.3 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email accessible.formats@dwp.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

The pension charges survey 2020 is designed to capture the full range of charges applied to defined contribution (DC) workplace pension schemes that are open to new members in the period after April 2016. Specifically, it seeks to:

  • measure average overall charge levels and the distribution of overall charges across pension pots
  • measure the prevalence and level of different charge components within the cap
  • confirm that charge components now banned are no longer being levied

The results are segmented by different scheme types and characteristics, such as the number of members of the scheme, and whether the scheme is a master trust, a trust-based or contract-based scheme.

The study also collected information about a range of charges which, although outside the cap, are considered relevant, such as transaction costs.

This survey follows the Pension charges survey 2015 and the Pension charges survey 2016.

Authors: Phil Stubington, Andrew Wood, Dr Louise Amantani and Alex Belcher

Published 13 January 2021

Related content