New Pension Reforms Could Make It Easier to See How Your Workplace Pension Performs

Millions of people pay into a workplace pension every month, often without knowing how their scheme's performance compares with others. New Government reforms aim to change that.

On 13 July 2026, the Government published an updated roadmap setting out when major workplace pension reforms will be introduced. One of the biggest changes is a new Value for Money framework, designed to make it easier to compare the performance and value offered by different pension schemes.

Under the framework, workplace pension schemes will be assessed on their investment performance, costs and charges, and quality of service. Schemes will be rated from red for poor value through to green for those outperforming on value, giving savers a clearer picture of how their pension compares with others.

The poorest-performing schemes will be required to improve or close. Where schemes fail to act, regulators could issue compliance notices, impose fines or, in serious cases, take steps to wind them up.

The Government says differences in pension performance are currently leaving an average member around £5,000 worse off over five years, highlighting how differences in returns and overall value can have a meaningful impact on retirement savings.

The changes won't happen immediately. From 2028, larger schemes, including Master Trusts, large single-employer schemes and certain multi-employer contract-based schemes, will complete and publish Value for Money assessments. The framework is expected to be rolled out to all workplace pension schemes from 2029.

The wider reforms also cover how small pension pots are consolidated and how people turn their savings into an income at retirement. The aim is to improve outcomes and make the workplace pension system work better for millions of savers.

For ordinary pension savers, there may be little immediate change. But over time, greater transparency could make it easier to see whether a workplace pension is delivering good value and put more pressure on underperforming schemes to improve.

With pensions often growing quietly in the background for decades, even relatively small differences in performance can add up. Making those differences more visible could bring greater transparency and accountability to a part of personal finance that many people rarely look at.