How do we look back on the last five years? Wars, a pandemic, an unnecessary economic crisis – chaos?
A change of leader , once , twice , three times , but no change in Government – until July 4th 2024.
Look back further to 2010 and a Government that started well , establishing auto-enrolment and revitalising the state pension. But one that ended in the bureaucratic muddle of consultations that has failed to deliver on dashboards, superfunds, CDC or any solution to the burgeoning problems of small pots (DC micro) or pensions (DC macro).
The 2021 Pension Schemes Act gave powers to the regulator (which has expanded in size but not wisdom), mandated dashboards which may arrive by the end of 2026 and launched CDC (for Royal Mail) who have hit the crossbar but remain at 0-0 at full time.
The review of the state pension age has still to be published, there are a number of consultations, including the flagship policy on VFM which are now stranded in purdah awaiting adoption by a future Government. The final DB funding code is as far away as ever.
Pension Ministers have come and gone, the most recent is probably relieved not to have to withstand a challenge to his personal probity over election expenses, his predecessor is now #2 in the Treasury but Laura Trott cannot be said to have exercised her power in the direction of pensions. She , Jeremy Hunt and Bim Afolami have been speaking to the Growth agenda but, as my blog yesterday commented, pensions are an outlier in the regulatory debate. Guy Opperman is at transport – who really speaks for pensions in the Tory ranks- Ros Altmann?
The same can be said for Labour, since the departure of McClymont in 2016. There has been no memorable labour policy intervention other than Rachel Reeves’ intention to reverse the scrapping of the annual allowance. The SDP and Liberals are struggling to get to grips, I have a request for policy information from the Liberal spokesperson , Wendy Chamberlain but I have as yet heard nothing. We currently have no shadow pension minister. We mourn two seriously good men lost to us – Jack Dromey and Frank Field
Only in the House of Lords is there specialist pension expertise. Bryn Davies, Ros Altmann, Jeannie Drake, Sharon Bowles represent Labour, Conservative and Liberal interests. All are knowledgeable , experienced and together with many other elderly peers – interested in pensions.
Anything could be better
The agony of inaction that has characterised pensions politics reached its apogee last year when a bill on the licencing of Pedicabs in London was prioritised over a bill to reform pensions. Anything could be better than nothing and nothing is what we are currently getting.
Labour promise us a mash-up, a pension review to consider all of the above and more. This week I delivered a paper which goes into their mincing machine asking for practical support for those with pots and no pensions, a cohort of savers who are making a bad first of the pension freedoms with little support from the guidance guarantee and no product innovation from the defined ambition project or subsequent iterations.
McClymont, probably the one charismatic Labour figure we can remember, other than the chair of the WPC, is doing what any self-respecting Cumbernauld lad should do, which is to bring up his family. If I were he, I would continue to do so, but right now , his solution to the skills shortage in Labour ranks is to hope that someone turns up from the current crop of new Labour MPs smashing through the blue walls. It will be interesting to see if he is right but it is no way to manage the pension problem if you have serious intent as a future Government.
It would make sense for the Pension Minister’s job to return to being a full Ministerial position (rather than the junior minister role inherited by Guy Opperman from Ros Altmann). Then , at least, the role might attract a little more interest within the house and from external commentators (outside the pension bubble).
As for the Scottish Nationalists, it looks like we will be seeing a lot less of them in Westminster and while Reform are likely to be influential to the Tory party’s forum , they aren’t likely to have many MPs. So our two most influential pension politicians work for LCP (Webb) and IFS (McClymont) and that is that.
What of the lobbyists?
The two principal commercial lobbyists – the ABI and the PLSA and the lesser ones – the Investment Association, the BVCA, the AIC and the various advisory bodies (IFA and consultancy) , have now to make their last minute attempts to shape the manifestos and then wait. They are powerless in Purdah (when civil servants and politicians keep out of their way).
The most powerful external voice should be the unions, who even post Corbyn, have powerful influence over Labour funding. I went to their most recent pensions conference along with Bryn Davies and Jo Cumbo. The debate focussed on preserving rights to the state pension , public sector pensions and the remains of corporate DB. The CDC project is still close to the TUC’s heart but – beyond the success of the CWU with Royal Mail six years ago, the union movement has put forward nothing by way of a route back to wage for life pensions.
Influence on progress looks hard to find from the lobbies or from the lower house. Only in the upper house do I see a burning desire to set things right and it may be from there that hope springs. Hope springs eternal but as I sit here this morning, this election campaign does not look as if it will be fought on issues that matter to those in later age.
I hope I am wrong.
