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News: Private savings - More action needed

Latest ABI (Association of British Insurers) new business figures, for Q3 2005, show a rise in individual pension saving of 6% on the same quarter last year, to £804 million APE (Annual Premium Equivalent). APE is an industry benchmark of Regular Premium plus a tenth of Single Premium new business.

The majority of the rise represents new saving. Overall new long-term business in the latest quarter stood at £2.8 billion APE, an annual increase of 12%.

Despite the robust figures Chris Kenny, the ABI's Director of Life and Pensions, says the ABI's view remains that the workplace is key to increasing overall levels of savings in the UK.

Automatic enrolment into workplace and stakeholder pensions, perhaps with an independent body to set the level of employer contributions to schemes that individual employees pay into, would accelerate this trend and dramatically boost savings in the UK.

"We hope that the Pensions Commission recommends an initiative of this type and that the Government implements it through swift legislation, rather than disrupt returning confidence with untested policy experimentation," says Kenny.

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