This album came out when I was a 14 year old (soon to be a) punk . I thought it back in 1975 the worst album of all time. What could be better to be young and British, Supertramp were old and Canadian

I was reminded of it when I read of a crisis upon us, it wasn’t for me back then. Just like this headline isn’t for pensions now.  There is no crisis and I’m not scared.

Chris Marchant does his best to convince us there’s a story here, but there isn’t. I went to the launch of the cross industry group’s description of a “crisis” and like the contents of Supertramp’s album, there is nothing here to suggest that Britain won’t get by.

The public must be brought into decisions about the future of UK pensions if the system is to deliver fair and sustainable retirements, according to a report commissioned by a cross-industry group.

The project was backed by the New Citizen Project and funded by the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, which has labelled ongoing issues in the industry as a “pensions crisis”.

Further members of the cross industry group were The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Pensions UK, People’s Pension, Nest Pensions, Nest Insight and consumer rights expert Johnny Timpson.

The “Deliberative Democracy & Pensions” report argued that, as individuals increasingly bear responsibility and risk for their retirement outcomes, any new pensions settlement must be shaped by the citizens whose futures depend on it.

With the Pensions Commission tasked with improving private pension adequacy and addressing the financial challenges faced by underserved groups such as lower earners, the report suggests that citizen involvement can strengthen policymakers’ understanding of what the public considers to be a fair and sustainable pensions system.

A central recommendation of the report is the commissioning of a Citizens’ Assembly on the future of UK pensions. This would be intended to support the work of the Pensions Commission and inform decision making by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Catherine Foot, director of The Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, says: “Public involvement and consultation are not new to pensions policy. Following the recommendations of the 2006 Pensions Commission, the Department for Work and Pensions commissioned the National Pensions Debate. But what has changed is the sophistication of deliberative methods and our understanding of how they can support complex policymaking.

“Today’s pensions challenges involve difficult trade offs and long term consequences. Deliberative approaches stand out for their ability to support the public to engage with these issues in a meaningful way, helping policymakers to ground reform in public values as well as technical evidence.”

Deliberative democracy is designed to bring together a representative group of the public, support them to understand complex issues, hear diverse perspectives and weigh evidence based trade offs. This in theory enables people to develop informed, considered views, and can provide policymakers with a clearer sense of genuine public consensus.

I had my  ticket and I went

There were some interesting people there, Johnny Timpson, Monty Huzadi, Peter Tompkins and the panellists. There was a man who talked about animal cruelty (an example of the working of Deliberate Democracy. There was some discussion about how we could make the Pension Commission better and some talk about how this “exercise” might be published separately. There was even some talk that it would do what the Pension Commission could not do.

But I did not get the sense in the room that anybody thought that pensions were in crisis. Later that evening I sat down and had my supper watching Martin Lewis and saw how complicated people found pension contributions and how to take their pot as cash or annuity. I watched as people testified to finding pots they had lost (one woman spoke of a £45,000 pot she’d built up when young and forgotten about). There is a crisis of confidence about pension pots and maybe unpaid pensions but when it came to investment and value people got from pensions, Martin Lewis’ hour long show was silent.

The conclusion I got from Matin Lewis’ hour long show is that people are interested in what goes in and what comes out and in between they’re not bothered.

Martin reminded us that “pots” are only part of the picture and that there was a state pension and pensions paid with guarantees underwritten by employers (including the Government) but for the most part his answer was to talk with Moneyhelper and get guidance. Advice is for rich people says Martin Lewis.

I think that I agree with Johnny Timpson who said that the Pension Commission will benefit from a Deliberative Democracy debate on pension reform. But whether this can be achieved from within the pensions industry reaching out, as we had yesterday I doubt. Martin Lewis could do it, maybe those who push for financial inclusion as Johnny Timpson does, but the rest of us (myself included) are too infected by a desire for pensions to be reformed in our direction. For us , the current situation will always be a crisis.

Crisis, what crisis, says Martin Lewis and those who appeared on his show!