Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Liberal Democrat Alexander said that, now freedoms have been offered to the public, it would want policymakers to “get on and do them”.

In March, Chancellor George Osborne announced key changes to the taxation of pensions, giving retirees greater access to their savings from April next year and effectively ending the need to buy an annuity.

During the Radio 4 programme, it was suggested to Alexander that it had not gone unnoticed the reforms will be introduced shortly before the general election in 2015.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say we are doing this in a big rush,” he said. “We announced these changes in the Budget [and] we’ve had a substantial consultation about the details of them. It’s not a new area of debate.

“Where you’re talking about liberalising a regime, and that can be done simply and straight-forwardly, I think a lot of people will say, having offered us these freedoms, get on and do them, and that’s precisely what we’re doing.” 

Criticism

Alexander also said the public should be trusted with their pensions, after experts suggested there could be substantial fallout from the reforms.

Though supporting the government’s “direction of travel”, Hargreaves Lansdown head of pensions research Tom McPhail, also speaking on Radio 4, said the manner in which the changes are being introduced was “reckless and irresponsible”. “Things will potentially end quite badly for quite a lot of people,” he said.

But Alexander replied: “It is a tiny wee bit patronising to say to people who have worked hard throughout their lives, put money aside for their retirement, that they shouldn’t have these freedoms.

“While of course these are big decisions that people have to consider carefully before making judgements about how to use the money they’ve saved for retirement, we also shouldn’t ignore the other changes this government has made.

“Steve Webb, the longest serving pensions minister I think there has ever been, is also introducing the single-tier pension that means the level of the basic state pension will be enough to lift people above the means-tested level. It creates a much better safety net in the state system.”