As part of its pensions review, the government is considering allowing firms to force their employees to join company pension schemes, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Forum Response: National Association of Pension Funds

A spokesman for the National Association of Pension Funds told ePolitix.com: ""Alan Pickering, a former NAPF Chairman, is the author of a major pensions simplification review, due to be published next month.

"According to recent reports, he will recommend that employers be allowed to make membership of their pension scheme compulsory for new employees. We agree that this would be a way of making it easier to run a company pension scheme.

"The NAPF believes that the government should be doing all it can to widen the availability of these pensions, and look forward to the review, and the government's response."

Forum Response: Age Concern

A spokeswoman for Age Concern told ePolitix.com: "Age Concern is calling for far greater clarity to the system, to ensure that people have more effective means to be able to save for their future retirement. An issue of concern with compulsion is that lower paid earners may face difficulties paying towards pension schemes."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, told ePolitix.com: "The mess that is current pension provision has come about because of repeated meddling with different parts of the jigsaw.

"Alan Pickering's recommendations seem sensible, particularly in the context of the occupational pension sector which he was invited to address. It will be important to consider these recommendations in the context of other forthcoming reviews, and bring coherence to the whole field of pension formation."