Though Dr Iain Clacher never quite made it onto the webcast, attendants of Pension PlayPen’s last webinar of the financial year were treated to the sombre tones of Dr Con Keating who talked us through the anomalies between data supplied by the Office of National Statistics, the PPF and TPR.
You can watch the recording of the event for yourselves here.
Con’s slides are available to download from this link and can be flicked through below (thanks to the wonder of SlideShare)
Key takeaways
This information is getting airplay in parliament but is being ignored by the pension press (witness no press today). This is odd.
Similarly, it is not being picked up by consultancies in general, despite the co-operation of three consultancies in supplying Con and Iain with data.
The Pensions Regulator did not join the call though there was a representative of the Work and Pensions Committee present.
The DWP’s Impact assessment has been based on disputed data . The Pensions Regulator’s impending DB code looks like being based on disputed data. The not unreasonable conclusion from Keating and Clacher is that any further policy from either , based on the TPR/PPF data be put on hold.
The Feedback
There was a very noisy chatroom (which I unfortunately failed to capture). The general tone was of disbelief that TPR appeared in denial it had a problem, consultants in denial about the data anomalies and trustees conspicuous by their absence from the debate.
There were only 33 people on this call but they included many experienced individuals, including senior figures in the Financial Reporting Council and the Work and Pensions Committee.
This issue is unlikely to go away and the scandal is , it is getting so little publicity.