I have to say, I have been surprised and pleased by the interest of union pension officers in what we can now call “collective pensions” (formerly CDC!).

There are three dates in my diary to catch up with them. The first is tomorrow to find out how their discussions with the DWP (today) has gone. Their’s is an imaginative agenda for collective pensions and I hope that their plans to convert large parts of retirement saving to workplace pensions is in line with DWP’s ambitions.

The second date is the TUC Congress on September 13th to 16th when potential proprietors of a collective pension scheme will be running a fringe meeting on “CDC”. Our Terry Pullinger is going to join them. It’s happening in Brighton and I want a blow by blow account (perhaps a video?).

The third leg of the stool is First Actuarial’s union with Jack Jones and Andrew Dobbie on the pension list , both involved in the promotion of collective pensions to employers and beyond.

First Actuarial is now part of Gallagher who have recently been promoting “CDC”. First Actuarial have promoted CDC well before Royal Mail’s dispute with CWU over pensions. Terry Pullinger, Jon Millidge and First Actuarial’s Derek Benstead and Hilary Salt were key to getting what Royal Mail call their Collective Pension

The next twelve months are likely to see unions influencing unionised employer strategy with regards pots and pensions. I look forward to the next month and to see it repeated through to March’s TUC Pension Conference.