It is widely expected that George Osborne is to set to scrap the Money Advice Service in today’s Budget.

Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon said: “With the chancellor under increasing pressure to make savings and the private sector set to offer guidance options between full advice and no advice, the outlook was ominous for MAS, especially with so much duplication from other consumer pension guidance services.

“With MAS overlooked for Pension Wise, the guidance service set up for George Osborne’s pension freedoms, the writing was on the wall.

“The Financial Advice Market Review is encouraging the private sector to fill the advice gap with new guidance models, and from a pensions perspective, there’s arguably a more natural connection between pension firms, advisers and their customers, than there is to separate public bodies.

“This may explain why MAS has incurred high costs raising awareness of its services.”