Britain's biggest pension funds warn the Treasury of severe delays to George Osborne's flagship pension reforms

Savers will be unable to use their pensions as bank accounts next year because the Government has given "insufficient" detail to companies, who say customers face a 12-month wait. George Osborne, the Chancellor, has pledged that the over-55s will have full discretion over the use of retirement funds from April. But in a blow to the more than four million people eligible next year, Britain’s biggest pension funds have warned the Treasury that they will be unable to implement the reforms in time. The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), which represents 1,300 funds with 17 million savers, sent 100 questions on "unresolved" issues to officials, which it said had caused severe delays. As a result hundreds of thousands of savers planning to retire in 2015 might have little option but to lock into a lifetime income from an annuity, or pay a large tax bill to withdraw their entire pot, experts said....Read more here