The Government's Budget has created a timeframe nightmare for defined contribution (DC) trustees, Pitmans Trustees Ltd (PTL) has said.

In last week's Budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced that from April 2015 every DC retiree will be given access to free, face-to-face, impartial guidance regarding their retirement options and trustees are expected to deliver this "guidance guarantee".

However, PTL managing director Richard Butcher said that trustees have too much to do in a short space of time, and has urged the Government to consider a later introduction date.

Butcher said: "Although the principle of this is clearly good, it is certainly important that members receive guidance about their retirement options.

"It does, however, leaves us trustees with a number of concerns – principally, how on earth we can be expected to comply in that time frame."

He said that the details of who will pay for the guidance, who will measure its quality and provide the guidance, has not been clarified.

PTL estimated that there will be between 300,000-400,000 DC retires a year from April 2015 and that it will take at least 1,000 guides to help these people.

Butcher questioned where the guides will come from and said that they will all need to be knowledgeable and trained on robust standards that have not yet been defined.

He said: "This is simply too much to do competently in just over 12 months. We would urge the Government to consider a later introduction date.

"Yes, it will cost some members but the risk of not doing so is an incompetent system, which lets many more down."

First published 25.03.2014

monique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk