Pensions Goth loves to explain what’s going on in pensions, what Government, industry and regulators are up to and what changes might mean for members. Pensions Goth loves cats, heavy metal music and is passionate about the truth, data and making sense of pensions.

She also tweets as #Pensions_Goth and you can find her on blue sky at @pensionsgoth.bsky.social

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    Welcome to Pensions Goth Blog

    Insights, stories, commentary and thoughts on pensions policy and events.

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      Member representation is fading but the case for it has not gone away

      The TUC launched a report yesterday (researched and written by me) looking at the decline of member voice in pension trustee boards. Member representation is declining not because anyone made a conscious decision to remove member trustees. It is the result of changes in the pensions landscape. The…

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      Anna Brain talks about accessing pensions for housing

      I talk to Anna Brain about Nest Insight’s housing and pensions project Pensions Goth: What were you trying to find out when you started the Housing and Pensions Project, and how did you go about it? Anna: The Housing and Pensions Project started because there has been growing…

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      We keep missing the PIP shaped elephant in the debate

      You don’t have to look far to find accounts from disability benefit claimants who say their evidence has been misunderstood, minimised, or recorded in a way they don’t recognise. The Work and Pensions Committee has raised concerns about PIP assessments and the way contractors and processes can shape…

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      I talk to a real scientist about water!

      Pensions Goth speaks to Dr Izzy Bishop, a freshwater scientist from University College London whose work focuses on water quality, pollution, and ecosystem resilience, about why water risk matters for infrastructure, and long-term investment. Pensions Goth: I want to start at the beginning. Not with regulation or climate…

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      Policy doesn’t reflect gendered experiences

      There’s a current mismatch between policy, practice and how pension outcomes are determined. New State Pension entitlement is built from individual NI records and, in most cases, people can’t build entitlement from a spouse as under the previous system. Workplace pensions have shifted. In DB, dependent support is…

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      State Pension, inflation, and the timing lag

      The State Pension increases annually in April. The size of the increase is decided using measures from the previous year under the triple lock, the highest of: For 2026 to 2027, the new State Pension will increase by 4.8%, in line with average earnings growth for May to…