If you read the press , you will hear what this Government has got wrong but not much about what it is doing right. There is no mention of the workplace pensions that it’s getting right!
This from this morning’s FT.
The article then goes on to explain laws that have been made and Bills for Laws that are being passed this session.
It does not mention the CDC changes that came into place last year
Nor the Pension Schemes Bill that should be enacted this session.
Not laws that our trade bodies want to publicise.
Bearing in mind the importance that we place on private pensions , whether we listen to the ABI or Pensions UK, we don’t make much noise about change outside our bubble. I noticed at the Pensions UK investment conference that the media centre is now only populated by people from the trade press. Even the FT weren’t in place this year.
And yet the changes to workplace pensions that will result from the CDC UMES regulations and the changes to DC and DB workplace pensions in the Pension Schemes Bill are radical, they will change the way people get paid in retirement and the money that funds these pensions will be managed differently , hopefully for the benefit of our economy and out society.
That article by Jim Pickard, deputy political editor, and Anna Gross, political correspondent of the FT , makes no mention of pensions at all!
I wonder what all these lobbyists we employ though subs paid to the IMA, Pensions UK and ABI do?
Certainly the Reform UK party are making political capital out of LGPS and public sector unfunded pensions, claiming they can cut the bill to the tax-payer of these “gold-plated” pension promises.
But what are we hearing of the good news stories? What of the improvements in pensions offered through workplace pension saving into CDC? Who is speaking up for the millions of savers who arrive at retirement with a pot and not a pension?
I suspect that there is an opportunity here for unions such as Unite, Unison, Prospect and many others to start making a lot more noise about the positive steps taken by this Government, albeit a continuation of policies commenced by the Coalition and continued by Conservatives.
Should not this be what our lobbyists should be talking about , rather than arguing upon a pin about obscure matters of fiduciary responsibility? Within a few months, a large number of savers into workplace pensions will be getting a £70 rebate from HMRC into their bank account, where is the noise on that. Within a year we hope to have a pensions dashboard which will spell out our pensions whether DB, DC, State or CDC. Who, other than Richard Smith , has put his hand up to tell the wider world of something that we all got quite excited about ten years ago!
We are very bad at telling people the good news stories that pensions bring. We have for two decades been telling anyone who will listen that our DB pensions are broken , only to find that 75% of them are in surplus (TPR number). We have done well with auto-enrolment (though we have left the job incomplete according to TPR). Whether we prefer CDC or Retirement Guided Paths, we are returning to what people think they’re buying when they save from their pay – a pension! Isn’t it time to boast about private pensions as we do our state pension? Isn’t it time for the private sector to aspire to pay the kind of pensions expected by those in Government pension schemes?
In May, the prime minister is preparing to present King Charles III with roughly 30 new bills for the next parliamentary session. Rather than wonder who will be the prime minister, can we please ensure that the Pension Schemes Bill is one of the 30 and that the DWP is congratulated for good work.