Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This project examined the extent to which the internet can make a difference to pension industry structure, product distribution, transaction procedures and administrative processes. Key researched questions to be resolved included: what was the continued role of the independent financial advisor (IFA) in the communication and distribution of pensions; to what extent the internet facilitates improved decision-making and wider access to pensions information and transactions; and to what extent the roles and responsibilities of the various parties involved in the distribution of pensions were altered by the use of the internet. The whole of the extended pension supply chain was considered during the project; data were collected from pension providers, IFAs, corporate customers and individual consumers (including those who purchased as part of a company scheme and those who purchased independently). The research focused on identifying specific areas where greater co-ordination and co-operation between supply chain members may be of benefit. It did not examine the reasons behind pension purchase or non-purchase. Data gathering for the project was in the form of individual interviews, workplace focus groups and questionnaire surveys. Only the survey data are currently included in this dataset, covering four groups: IFAs; public sector employees with a defined benefit pension plan; private sector employees whose organisation operated a defined contribution pension plan; and members of the general public who were mainly self-employed. Further information and links to publications may be found on the Pensions Online project web page.

Main Topics:

Topics covered in the questionnaires included: pension plan membership, respondents' attitudes to and use of pension plan web sites; outcomes experienced as a result of using the sites and beliefs about future outcomes, important features for inclusion in such sites, general opinions on pension plan provision via the internet; and respondents' demographic characteristics. The questionnaire for IFAs also included a section on company internet presence and impact of internet provision on pensions.

Simple random sample

Postal survey

Internet survey