The government was in listening mode at the launch of a report to tackle state dependency and potential National Insurance rebates for income protection policyholders in Westminster today.
The Demos and Zurich report Control Shift, was launched at a panel event with keynote from the minister for civil society Nick Hurd.
Panellist Gary Shaughnessy, chief executive of UK life at Zurich, said Hurd did not comment on specific actions to be taken on the report but very much listened and was complimentary about the 113-page document.
Shaughnessy said: "Hurd welcomed the report but he was not here to give an answer, rather to listen. Income protection was discussed quite a bit today with the proposed idea of National Insurance incentives.
"We have moved from defined benefit pensions schemes with relatively generous levels of risk protection to defined contribution schemes where the onus and risk lies with the individual."
He added when it came to the National Employment Savings Trust government scheme the protection element of savings plans was almost missed altogether.
"There is a protection gap and there is a real need to get people to understand risk more and to know the options available to them," Shaughnessy added.
A key recommendation in the report is for the government to reward individuals that take active responsibility for financial planning beyond auto-enrolment.
The report proposes flexible National Insurance rebates for individuals to re-invest back into their pension or private protection.
Panel members included Gary Shaughnessy, chief executive of UK Life at Zurich, - Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas and Max Wind-Cowie, head of the Progressive Conservatism Project at Demos.
Shaughnessy said the next move would be to work with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and government to turn interesting theory into a reality.
The other key recommendations of the report are; establishing a risk commission; incentivising healthy behaviours; community cashback for those that save the public sector money.
The report also touched on the long-term care funding problem and sickness absence management.
