What can Australia learn from the UK’s pension scheme?
Super Review – 29 January 2026
SuperRatings director Kirby Rappell has shared his learning from the UK with Super Review after helping the country conduct a pilot Value for Money initiative.
Speaking to Super Review, Rappell said he had visited the UK three times recently to develop a framework and engage with the providers and working group.
“Australia has been doing this for many years, first as a scale assessment then subsequently as the annual performance test.
“We’ve applied a modified version of what we do in Australia and come up with a VFM model for the UK that looks across investment performance, governance and oversight, fees and costs and service quality. We have taken some of the learnings out of the Australian market that hopefully produce something broader than just a quantitative performance test.
“We explored what does value for money look like, how do we ensure there is the right risk management and oversight of savers’ pots and how they can put up appropriate guardrails that aren’t too restrictive as to stifle innovation and not too wide to encourage non-aligned practices.
“It’s been exciting to see how we can add our Australian learnings while also supporting them and tailoring it for the UK market.”
The framework will eventually be applied to all UK commercial pension schemes, kicking off with the first ones from 2028.
Commenting on what he has found in the UK market compared to Australia, he said: “Consumers in the UK are less focused on their ‘pots’ or accounts, there is low awareness there, it is more focused on the role of the employer. In 10-15 years, they want that to be front and centre so how can we help people get more engaged and get used to a world where there is more comparison between products?
“It showed me how far the Australian market has come and how competitive it is compared to 10-15 years ago.”
While Australia is seen as a leader in the space worldwide, he still said there was things he learnt from the UK counterpart.
“The rate at which UK defined contribution schemes are being taken up is 2-3x higher than the growth rate is in Australia. DC is alive and well in the UK. The UK has also done a really good job at encouraging people to nominate their beneficiary, it’s more ingrained in their culture, that is an area where Australia need to make more effort.”
