The Commission’s interim report does not say it will lower the first Commission’s target replacement rates, but it does build the analytical case for doing so. It introduces a new set of lower “policy element” replacement rates based on what the State Pension and minimum automatic enrolment contributions were actually designed to deliver. It suggests…
The Turner Commission’s design for auto-enrolment drew on US research showing that inertia could be used to keep people enrolled in pension schemes, and they were right; AE opt-out rates stayed below 10%. The same research showed that defaults can anchor savers at minimum contribution rates. The Commission proposed a minimum of 8% of band…
I never meant to end up in pensions. In fact, I spent the first 15 years or so of my life dreaming about overthrowing capitalism. My father was a Marxist and fed this passion, telling me I would grow up to be a leader of men, and I actually felt that being a revolutionary wasn’t…
I had the honour of running a workshop alongside Andy Seed last week at Owen James’ excellent Retirement Matters conference. We discussed the Pensions Commission and what it needs to consider, and one point really stood out: we seem to have lost sight of the philosophy that underpinned the construction of our welfare system. Beveridge’s…