This blog is a transcription of a Linked in post by Arun after his early morning attendance at the Pension PlayPen roundtable on UK pensions
I’ve posted the video of yesterday’s roundtable here.
He was banned from promoting Selfies but he did anyway and why should anyone be banned from speaking their mind! He was generally reckoned a superstar.
I’d like him to know that the audience for these Tuesday mornings is much larger than the 40 or so yesterday. I display the group of friends who make my Tuesday evenings.
What a great way to start a day (at 5.30 am). Superb Pension PlayPen discussion (h/t Steve Goddard Henry Tapper) on the hashtagPensionCommission #2 with Lord Davies, Tom McPhail and Margaret Snowdon, OBE. As Tom concluded/recommended,
“Go big or go home!“
I reiterate that the UK has insane talent to solve this bipartisan issue (better than any country I have worked on/in): in government (Rt Hon Rachel Reeves Harriett Baldwin Torsten Bell Guy Opperman), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (Rob O’Carroll, Andy Tarrant, etc.); think tanks like Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) (Chris Curry Dr Priya Khambhaita); regulators like TPR (former head David Fairs); DMO (Jessica Pulay); and industry (CS Venkatakrishnan Tom Ground). No other country comes close… but hopefully this commission is not a “Yes Minister” like dodge, and helps UK citizens, especially the poor and uncovered, get a decent hashtagPension (NOT pot) soon.
A simple acronym to summarize the goal of the system/commission perhaps? To design a system that is/addresses:
1. Simple
2. Ethnicity – maybe sharia-compliant?
3. Liquid – not locked up for 40 yrs, especially important for low-earners
4. Flexible (h/t Paul Todd at Nest pensions – catering to different needs)
5. Income-focused (missing in DC plans today globally, including Nest)
6. Expenses which are low
7. Self-Employed solution (but also for the new gig economy).
Weirdly, this spells hashtagSeLFIES!!
Hope PlayPen takes the suggestion of Andy Agathangelou and writes a white paper to help Commission members jeannie drake Ian Cheshire, Nick Pearce with the incredible insights of PlayPen members.
The inevitable plug- followed by the equally inevitable paper
Why the f*ck does it have to be Sharia Compliant !!