Compassion is not a dirty word – a blog about Johnny Timpson OBE

henry tapper

2 years ago

One of the gentlemen of social media, Johnny Timpson and I “like” a lot of what each other does. I didn’t know much about Johnny but have spent a profitable morning finding more about his career. He has a wonderful linked in profile with over 40 irons in the fire!

I hope one day we can talk with Johnny about his work on a Pension PlayPen coffee morning.

Few people can have more richly deserved proper recognition

Here’s a little about the man

Johnny Timpson OBE

Johnny Timpson OBE has over 40 years insurance and banking sector leadership and business development experience and is the principal of Johnny Timpson Consulting and Non-Executive Chair of special military insurance brokerage Absolute Military.

Timpson chaired the Protection Access to Insurance Steering Group in his role as Cabinet Office disability champion

A Financial Inclusion Commissioner, he is additionally a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, the Prime Minister’s Champion Group for Dementia Communities, the BIBA Access To Insurance Committee, the Building Resilient Households Group, and GAIN- the Group for Autism Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity.

Johnny has ambassador roles with Age Irrelevance, the Grief Chat bereavement support service and the Invictus Games Scotland 2027 Bid. He currently has advisory roles with the Vocational Rehabilitation Association UK, the University of Edinburgh Business School, University of Bristol and the Protection Distributors Group.

Awarded an OBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours and recipient of multiple professional body and industry awards, Johnny is a former Cabinet Office Disability and Access Ambassador for both the Insurance and Banking sectors (both public appointments), plus was founding Chair of the Access to Insurance Working Group and TISA Consumer Protection Committee.

Personally and on behalf of the Building Resilient Households Group I would like to thank the Insurance and Financial Services All Party Parliamentary Group for the opportunity to discuss our Report and Recommendations plus body of work over the last 7 years to improve the financial resilience of UK 🇬🇧 households and families of all types. In particular, our asks for;

# The establishment of an independent Commission on Household Financial Security modelled on the Pension Commission.

# Firms outlining their occupational benefit provision, particularly in relation to sickness and rehabilitation support, in their annual report and accounts plus a revisiting of Day One Statements and the regular provision information of occupational benefit provision for ALL employees. Additionally financial services firms, pension scheme trustees/administrators plus employers partnering with MoneyHelper

# Greater workplace take up of income protection insurance, and side care savings ( particularly opt out) together with Statutory Sick Pay reform and access to vocational rehabilitation support plus a reworking of means-tested welfare disregards where insurance claim benefits are used to fund essential costs – eg debt, housing, utilities, care, council tax and broadband costs.

# Taking forward our work with Office for National Statistics re the development of a financial resilience index and scores.

# Lifelong financial education provision and resilience support , particularly in the workplace with this including how the advice guidance boundary review might support coaching and mentoring.

# Smart, safe, and secure data sharing to speed and improve support for vulnerable customers.

Age Irrelevance

His work on Age Irrelevance has led him to promote new research on the growing inequality surrounding retirement.

Focussing on people aged 55 to 64 in England, the IFS find that:

The increase in employment seen during the 2000s and 2010s was greatest among those with average levels of wealth. The employment rate of the middle fifth (in terms of wealth) rose sharply from 59% in 2002-03 to 76% by 2018-19. This employment rate is considerably higher than that seen among the poorest fifth (46%) or the wealthiest fifth (65%).
Early retirement is increasingly a preserve of the wealthy. Back in 2002-03, the fraction of those who were retired aged 55-64 was fairly similar across the wealth distribution: 20% in the poorest fifth compared to 28% for the wealthiest fifth. In contrast, by 2018-19, only 7% of the poorest fifth were retired, while for the wealthiest fifth it was still 24%.
Many of the poorest report being out of work for health-related reasons. 39% of the poorest fifth in 2018-19 were not in the labour force but not retired: most of them reporting themselves as permanently sick or disabled or (to a lesser extent) looking after family. This is unchanged from 2002-03 and compares to only 9% of people in both the middle fifth and the wealthiest fifth.