The Budget of 2014 proved to be a surprise, not least to those in the pensions industry, which has been calling for flexibility in income choices at retirement for some time. However, it was scale of the announcements in the Budget that was not anticipated, especially with the lack of consultation and short timescales to implementation.

Pension scheme providers will have had to make immediate changes to their systems to deal with amendments to the defined contribution (DC) pension regime that came into effect from 27 March 2014. These amendments included: