Thanks Steve
There is in the departments that touch on pensions (and it’s more than HMT and DWP) a malaise at this moment because Government is failing to show a direction. Steve Groves would have Government cut back and so would I, there is too much in Brighton, to a lesser extent in Stratford and the productivity of the DWP has been, until this summer – dire.
But if you talk to civil servants – and we heard a senior one speak on our coffee morning this week – you will hear a direction they are going which they have been given by Torsten Bell over the Bill and over CDC – we are yet to see the secondary legislation to make it happen on the Bill side but we are getting master trust CDC (UMES) in 2027 and a roadmap for the Retirement CDC by the end of 2028.
In short, we are seeing an improvement in the DWP and its Pension Schemes Bill is making its way through parliament as quickly as could be hoped for. To suppose that the rest of Government is under new management is a bit of a leap but I would say that the DWP and its regulator TPR have some direction – that’s fair. Give them a chance.
I don’t know where Steve’s chart is from but it makes sense from experience, we have nearly a thousand in the Pensions Regulator and it is not productive, but compared with the administration of the NHS and the management of immigration, it is not a big deal. We have to live with it and the Treasury does not manage problems like these through the budget.
Seve Groves is right, we need a business style approach and it is harder for a Labour Government to make changes because of its history and because it is still funded to a degree by unions.
So he will be on the side of Conservatives and most likely Reform UK in demanding a cut but that is not what we voted for last year. We may have thought we had bought Blair Pt 2 and we have not got Blair and Brown (yet). But we have a long way to go with this Government.
Reading through the comments of those he reaches out to (Tom McPhail is openly on the side of Conservatives) , I hear a frustration.
And from another right wing friend, Laurie Edmonds
This goes back to the election and I wonder if it’s helpful to carp from the side when at least in our world- the world of providing regular income to most people, we are getting on with it.
The Government has worked out that it cannot weaken its position with employers still further by implementing the 2017 AE reforms on top of the NI changes in 2024 and that “get real” means making the most with what we have by way of AE workplace savings plans and a means to collect contributions from employers and employees.
There is a lot of stuff that Torsten Bell can’t focus on and he’s given that Jeannie Drake and team to come up with suggestions for another Government. Right now Bell is proving himself in the Treasury and – supposing he can get a Budget out of last week’s mess – he will have done something that is pretty good for a Junior Minister of Pensions.
So to repeat a phrase I used of another friend (Darren) – “shut your pipe Steve”. There is not much we can do to manage Government through the Budget and that is the matter in hand. We have a job in hand to get the Pension Schemes Bill an Act by early next year and we need a CDC roadmap that is met.
Our job is to travel using the Roadmaps, if we don’t then we will let the public down and miss an opportunity. We may be appalled by ineptitude, which Government admits it is displaying, but this kind of thing happens.
I support a productive Government . I support Torsten Bell. Public and Private sectors need to travel down the mapped roads together as we can.
We must work with the Budget’s outcomes – get on with this Pension Schemes Bill and what goes with it.