Terry Pullinger

I had a conversation yesterday evening with a recruiter whose job it is to get big projects done by people who build houses. We talked about what made a job attractive to working people in his sector. He talked of pay so I suggested that some of that pay might be “deferred” so that when the builder was knackered, he or she could rely on income from a pension.

The recruiter told me to “get real”,

“Pensions aren’t for those who take up jobs I offer.  They’re for wealthy folks like you”

This is the challenge that pension schemes face. Right now, for a great many people, a pension is a deduction from their payslip and a statement (once a year if the letter gets through). It is most certainly not deferred pay, though many people think that having a pension will make things alright later on.

I have to admit to have been taken aback. He went to accuse me of living in a glass-house without any knowledge of ordinary people or what goes on in their lives.

I take this as a challenge for me. Over the next few weeks, I and some friends including Terry Pullinger and Alan Higham will be talking with officers of Unison, Unite and Prospect about how to reintroduce the idea of “deferred pay” to workplace “pensions”.

It is hard for me to counter the criticism the recruiter had of me when he said that workplace pensions were just for those wealthy enough not to have to work. He went on about the people that he places who have no such prospect and will rely on the state when they can no longer work.

Whether he thought this fair, I didn’t ask. I was considering of talking to him of converting pots to pensions but thought it fruitless to argue the toss. I thank him nonetheless. He has thrown down the challenge to me and Alan and Terry and I cannot say there is an answer as simple as moving from DC to CDC.

There needs to be a fundamental shift in how we get paid so that in future we put aside more of our pay for the future, so that we get pay in later life that together with the state pension can allow us a reasonably comfortable lifestyle.

I think that moving to a system that pays people a deferred wage rather than a pot is a good first step, but it is not the complete answer. People will need to accept less today for more tomorrow and employers must make it clear that the pay for the job on offer is more than the cash in hand.

If we cannot move to a point where those recruiting staff advertise the work pension, then people will continue to consider “pensions” as a mystery they’ll discover when they’re too old to work. That is not a good plan. The pensions dashboard will explode many people’s hope that they are on track, some will give up but others will look to their employers for help.

Whether it is the unions, employers , Government or the pensions industry, there must be begun, a campaign for pensions to be considered a part of pay, the part that comes later which provides a really valuable wage in later age.

Terry Pullinger is the only person I know who has perfected this message and those who have heard him will know that the message is powerful and immediately relevant to those at work.

An Easter footnote

Today is Good Friday and I wish you the compassion for others. It’s the day that a man laid down his life so that things might be better.  That’s the message that Easter’s brutal Friday brings. Last night was like the last supper ,  I was challenged and was shocked as the disciples were.

It started badly on Thursday , got worse on Friday but ended well on Easter Monday . I wish you the joy that is to come , only a long weekend away.