A report summarised the findings of a survey of just over 100 final salary pension schemes run by 50 major companies. The results showed that, in mid-2003, only 39 per cent of the schemes were still open to new entrants. In most cases those employees who were already in membership were continuing to accrue benefits, but some 10 per cent of the schemes had been frozen entirely, so existing members had ceased to build up further pensionable service in the plans.
Source: Pensions after Final Salary 2003/04, Incomes Data Services (020 7324 2599)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Dec
The government published its response to a consultation on simplifying the tax regime for pension schemes, and set out detailed proposals. But it said (in the Pre-Budget Report) that it would announce in the 2004 Budget whether or not the proposals would in fact be implemented. (This followed opposition from within the pensions industry to some aspects of the proposals, in particular a lifetime limit of 1.4 million on an individual's pension entitlement attracting tax relief.)
Source: Simplifying the Taxation of Pensions: The government s proposals, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Inland Revenue | Pre-Budget Report: The strength to take the long-term decisions for Britain - Seizing the opportunities of the global recovery, Cm 6042, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 10 December 2003, columns 1061-1086, TSO
Links: Response (pdf) | Pre-Budget report (pdf) | Hansard | KPMG press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
The government published estimates of the membership of contracted-out pension schemes and of the state earnings-related scheme. The number of people with some form of second-tier pension provision of this kind increased from 17.5 million in 1978-79 to 23.4 million by 2000-01. Membership of contracted-out pension schemes increased by 59 per cent over this period, reaching 14.3 million. The figures also showed that membership of the state earning-related scheme had risen between 1996-97 and 2000-01, from 7.8 million to 9.1 million (contrary to government aims).
Source: Second Tier Pension Provision 1978/79 to 2000/01, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: Report (pdf) | Tables (Excel) | Press release (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A think-tank pamphlet said that the pension system was inadequate - it was bewildering in its complexity, expensive, and failed to provide an adequate standard of living for a large proportion of pensioners. The author proposed replacing existing benefits with a universal pension system designed to allow everyone a comfortable living from the age of 70 onwards; increasing the basic state pension for a single person by more than 50 per cent, to 120 per week; reducing dependence on means-tested benefits; and raising the state pension age to 70 on a phased basis.
Source: Charles Elphicke, Ending Pensioner Poverty: Reforming the state pension system, Centre for Policy Studies (020 7222 4488)
Links: Pamphlet (pdf)
Date: 2003-Dec
A committee of the House of Lords proposed a universal state pension paid on the basis of citizenship rather than national insurance contributions record.
Source: Aspects of the Economics of an Ageing Population, Fourth Report (Session 2002-03), HL 179-I, House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | EOC press release | Help the Aged press release | Observer report
Date: 2003-Dec
A qualitative research study examined the factors influencing private sector employers' decisions to make changes to their pension provision, and explored whether changes were also made to retirement policies. It presented findings based on 30 case studies with organisations that had made changes to their pension provision, or had considered doing so. It also explored employees' understanding of the pension provision available to them, and the reasons why non-members had not joined their employer's scheme.
Source: Karen Bunt, Lorna Adams and Alistair Kuechel, Pension Scheme Changes and Retirement Policies: An employer and employee perspective, Research Report 199, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf lnks) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Nov
Insurers criticised a proposed European Union directive banning gender discrimination in the sale of financial services and products, including pensions and motor accident insurance. (The directive was unlikely to come into full operation before 2013.)
Source: Press release 5 November 2003, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: ABI press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Nov
A report estimated the impact of being under-pensioned by comparing the pension income of different individuals against the policy stereotype . Most people were at risk of being under-pensioned and recent reforms to the pension system would not solve the problem. There would always be disadvantage with the existing type of pension system, which assumed people were employed throughout a working life on a good income. Related papers covered the particular problems facing women, disabled people, people from ethnic minorities and non-standard workers, and a technical paper describing the model used to quantify the extent of under-pensioning.
Source: Chris Curry, The Under-pensioned, Pensions Policy Institute (020 7848 3744)
Links: Report (pdf) | PPI press release (pdf) | Links to related papers (pdf links)
Date: 2003-Nov
A research report examined the extent to which 14 occupational pension schemes had voluntarily changed their practices and procedures, in keeping with the principles recommended in the Myners report in 2001. Voluntary progress toward compliance was most visible in relation to the more quantifiable aspects of investment decision-making, including asset allocation, benchmarks and performance measurement. Evidence of progress was visible to a lesser degree on developing clear objectives and explicit mandates for investment managers.
Source: Sarah Horack, Allan Martin and Peggy Young, The Myners Principles and Occupational Pension Schemes: Findings from case study research, Research Report 195, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf lnks) | DWP press release | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Nov
A survey found that 26 per cent of final salary schemes closed to new staff in 2003, mainly due to rising costs, compared to 19 per cent in 2002.
Source: NAPF Annual Survey of Occupational Pension Schemes 2003, National Association of Pension Funds (020 7808 1300)
Links: Summary | NAPF press release
Date: 2003-Nov
The government announced its intention to introduce a Pensions Bill, designed to protect workers who lost their pensions because of company insolvency. A consumer group described the measure as 'tinkering'. Employers said companies with sound schemes should not be expected to bear the entire risk of bailing out those that failed.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, 26 November 2003, columns 4-7 (Queen's Speech), TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 21 November 2003, National Consumer Council (020 7730 3469)
Links: Text of Queen's Speech | Age Concern press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Nov
The government announced (at the Labour party conference) that people who put off claiming their state pension for five years would receive up to 30,000 in a lump sum - 50 per cent more than previously expected. Pensions experts said the lump sum would do little more than compensate for deferring 100 a week for five years, and that crucial details regarding the tax and benefits (means test) implications of the payment had not been spelt out.
Source: Speech by Andrew Smith MP (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions), 2 October 2003 | Press release 3 October 2003, Mercer Human Resource Consulting (020 7963 3127)
Links: Text of speech | Mercer press release | Times article | IOD press release
Date: 2003-Oct
Consultation began on a European Union directive on occupational pensions, designed to put in place a common framework allowing cross-border development of occupational pension schemes.
Source: Implementing the European Directive on the Activities and Supervision of Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision: Consultation paper, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: Consultation paper (pdf) | Text of directive (pdf) | DWP press release
Date: 2003-Oct
A report summarised qualitative research into the attitudes of younger consumers to saving for retirement. Young people on low incomes faced significant barriers to saving that put any prospect of a comfortable retirement at severe risk: they had little confidence that their saving would pay off, and their trust in government on pensions was so low that any moves to force them to save for retirement would be unpopular. MPs debated pension provision for younger women.
Source: James King, No Nest Egg: Research into attitudes of younger consumers to saving for retirement, National Consumer Council (020 7730 3469) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 28 October 2003, columns 1WH-24, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | NCC press release | TUC press release | Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Oct
Researchers looked at how people s saving behaviour and pension provision were affected by key life events, in the period 1991-2000. The most important factor associated with regular saving was people s own assessment of their overall financial situation (irrespective of income, employment status and family size). Changes in economic activity were associated with changes in savings behaviour: moving out of unemployment into work increased the likelihood of saving, while those who were already saving increased the amount they saved. Savers who lost their jobs were 4.2 times more likely than other savers to stop saving. Overall, men appeared to save more regularly than women, but only because they tended to live in better-off households. Women savers, however, were more likely to stop saving than men as a result of many events, including an increase in family size, first birth, divorce and (especially) widowhood. Saving for retirement was correlated with position on the income scale, with those with the highest incomes saving most. The report concluded that initiatives to promote higher levels of saving would have the greatest impact if they reinforced these normal patterns of saving.
Source: Stephen McKay and Elaine Kempson, Savings and Life Events, Research Report 194, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf links) | Summary (pdf) | DWP press release
Date: 2003-Oct
The first report was published of a new quarterly survey on people's savings behaviour and the attitudes which underpinned it. Some 8 million working people were not saving for retirement, and a further 2 million were saving at too low a level to provide an adequate retirement income. Only 6 per cent felt they understood pensions very well, while 56 per cent felt their understanding was either fairly or very bad. Only 2 per cent thought state benefits would provide a comfortable retirement income: many more (12 per cent) did not expect to receive anything at all from the state. The population was split between those (35 per cent) who believed individuals should take the main responsibility for providing their own retirement income and those (34 per cent) who believed the government should provide much higher state benefits. Younger people were far more likely to favour personal responsibility.
Source: The State of the Nation s Savings, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: Report (pdf) | ABI press release (pdf)
Date: 2003-Oct
An article reported a study which examined the provision of family care and its impact upon employment and subsequent pension entitlement amongst mid-life men and women in Britain. Fewer men and women who stopped work as a result of caring were members of an occupational pension scheme than other groups; and they had accumulated fewer years of contributions than their counterparts who continued working, with direct implications for their level of pension income in later life.
Source: Maria Evandrou and Karen Glaser, 'Combining work and family life: the pension penalty of caring', Ageing and Society, volume 23, issue 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2003-Oct
The insurance industry published a 'manifesto' for pensions reform. It said the increasing dependence of pensioners on means-tested support was 'not sustainable': it sent mixed messages to consumers, who did not know whether it was in their best interests to save. Pensions advisers were also cautious about advising people to save - especially those in the government's target group - for fear of being accused of mis-selling.
Source: Better Pensions for All, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: Manifesto (pdf) | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
Complaints to the Pensions Ombudsman increased by almost one third in 2002-03: nearly 4,000 complaints were received, by far the highest number since the office was established in 1990.
Source: Annual Report of the Pensions Ombudsman 2002-2003, Pensions Ombudsman (020 7834 9144)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
The government published draft regulations which would outlaw discrimination and harassment on grounds of religion or belief and sexual orientation by trustees and managers of occupational pension schemes.
Source: Draft Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 (Amendment) Regulations 2003, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500) | Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 (Amendment) Regulations 2003, Department of Trade and Industry
Links: Draft regulations (religion/belief) (pdf) | Draft regulations (sexual orientation) (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
The opposition Conservative Party spokesman on social security proposed a strategy for tackling the pensions crisis in European countries. He said that more people should be made to work, by raising the retirement age and drawing more people, especially women, into the labour force; higher levels of immigration should be allowed; and the birth rate needed to increase.
Source: David Willetts MP, Old Europe? Demographic change and pension reform, Centre for European Reform (020 7233 1199)
Links: CER press release (pdf) | Willetts speech | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Sep
Statistics on the first year (2001-02) of stakeholder pensions showed that around two-thirds of those taking up the pension were workers earning less than 20,000 a year, and that most were under 45. Over 30 per cent were bought by women.
Source: Press release 12 September 2003, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release | Inland Revenue table (1) (pdf) | Inland Revenue table (2) (pdf) | Inland Revenue table (3) (pdf)
Date: 2003-Sep
A former (Conservative) social security minister proposed a plan to ensure that everyone had their own pension fund, built up over their working lives, at least sufficient to free them from dependence on means-tested retirement benefits. Each person s fund would be paid for by rebates from their national insurance contributions and would replace the unfunded state second pension for the first 20 years of retirement.
Source: Peter Lilley MP, Save our Pensions, Social Market Foundation (020 7222 7060)
Links: Summary and link (pdf) to report
Date: 2003-Sep
A paper argued that voluntary pension provision in the United Kingdom was inequitable, and offered far less security than its continental equivalents. Moreover UK regulation of private pension providers only served to distort market signals.
Source: Noel Whiteside, In Search of Security: Earnings-related pensions in Britain and Europe, History & Policy website (web publication only)
Links: Paper
Date: 2003-Sep
An article said that the proposed 'saving gateway' (a new savings account for people on lower incomes) would be extremely difficult to target at those who might benefit in the way the government hoped: the danger was that the policy would be expensive relative to the number of genuinely new savers, and the amount of new savings, that it generated.
Source: Carl Emmerson and Matthew Wakefield, 'Increasing support for those on lower incomes: Is the saving gateway the best policy response?', Fiscal Studies, Volume 24 Issue 2/June 2003, Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800)
Links: Abstract
Date: 2003-Aug
Insurers reportedly said that 82 per cent of stakeholder pension schemes had no members, and that sales of stakeholder pensions were falling. They called for the 1 per cent cap on fees chargeable by them to be lifted.
Source: The Guardian, 25.8.03
Links: Guardian report
Date: 2003-Aug
A paper identified three key types of political risk facing state and personal pension schemes: those induced by demographic, economic, and purely political considerations. The state scheme had been susceptible to all three types of risk, with the result that the annual real internal rate of return on the second-pillar state pension (SERPS) for the average male worker had fallen from 5 per cent to 1.5 per cent over the last quarter century. However, the new Second State Pension (S2P) Scheme had raised the prospective rate of return to low-paid workers to 6.2 per cent.
Source: David Blake, What is a Promise from the Government Worth? Measuring and assessing the implications of political risk in state and personal pension schemes in the United Kingdom, Pensions Institute/Birkbeck College/University of London (020 7631 6410)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jul
A think-tank report argued that decent retirement incomes for all were affordable: but that to secure them the state had to take a leading role, and reverse the policy of substituting privately funded arrangements for public provision. In pensions, as in health, a modernised system of social insurance was inherently more efficient and equitable than relying on individual initiative and private capital markets.
Source: Bryn Davies, Hilary Land, Tony Lynes, Ken MacIntyre and Peter Townsend, Better Pensions: The state s responsibility, Catalyst, available from Central Books (020 8986 4854)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Jul
The government said (following a consultation exercise) that it would decide by the end of 2003 on the structure and level of the charge cap for simplified savings products (proposed by the Sandler review) - the 'great majority' of respondents had suggested that a 1 per cent cap would generate insufficient returns. The government said it aimed to have the new 'stakeholder' products available on the market from April 2005. A suite of three products would be introduced: a short-term investment product (to include existing cash individual savings accounts - ISAs); a medium-term investment product (with two investment options, both with a maximum equity exposure of 60 per cent of the fund s value); and a long-term investment product (to include the existing stakeholder pension). The government said it was also committed to making the 'child trust fund' available within the stakeholder product suite.
Source: Government Response to the Consultation on Sandler Stakeholder Product Specifications, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Response (pdf) | HMT press release | Consultation Document (pdf) | Sandler report | National Consumer Council press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jul
A research report looked at private pension provision among people of working age in Great Britain, and at people s attitudes towards pensions and saving for retirement. Almost 7 in 10 people of working age had had a private pension at some point, with the self-employed and part-time workers least likely to have had one. Few people of working age (13 per cent) thought their knowledge of pensions issues was good: but 61 per cent had heard of stakeholder pensions at the time of the survey (March 2002) - a substantial increase on a similar survey two years previously. People were evenly split on whether the individual (46 per cent) or the government (44 per cent) should be mainly responsible for ensuring people had enough to live on in retirement: only a minority (7 per cent) felt that this should be the responsibility of their employer.
Source: Victoria Mayhew, Pensions 2002: Public Attitudes to Pensions and Saving for Retirement, Research Report 193, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report | Summary (pdf) | DWP press release
Date: 2003-Jul
Employers said that, on conservative estimates, extra company payments needed to offset pension fund deficits would total 8 billion in 2003, 12 billion in 2004 and 16 billion in 2005. This would mean that total annual contributions would have doubled in just four years to 43 billion.
Source: The Impact of Pension Deficits, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report (pdf) | CBI press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A paper examined the fiscal and distributive impacts of three reform options for the state pension system, all designed to increase the retirement age by changing underlying incentives.
Source: Richard Blundell and Carl Emmerson, Fiscal Effects of Reforming the UK State Pension System, WP03/13, Institute for Fiscal Studies (020 7291 4800)
Links: Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jul
A report highlighted the case for reforming the United Kingdom pension system by comparing it to a minimum objective standard and to state pension systems in other countries, and by considering how state pensions were interacting with private pensions. It said that a review of UK state pensions was needed because there were serious pressure points in the system.
Source: Alison O'Connell, A Guide to State Pension Reform, Pensions Policy Institute (020 7848 3744) | i>State Pension Models, Pensions Policy Institute
Links: Report (pdf) | PPI press release (pdf) | Pension Models (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jul
A new book examined the ways in which pension choices over the lifecourse were structured by gender, class and ethnicity; the impact of changing patterns of partnership and parenthood on pension building; the distributional impact of privatising pensions; and questions about individualisation of rights, survivor benefits, a citizen's pension, and means-testing.
Source: Jay Ginn, Gender, Pensions and the Lifecourse: How pensions need to adapt to changing family forms, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2003-Jun
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the future of pensions. It said that pensioner poverty was being tackled by measures such as the introduction of a minimum income guarantee (and subsequent significant increases in it), the introduction of winter fuel payments, above-inflation increases to the basic state pension from April 2002, and the introduction of pension credit from October 2003.
Source: The Future of UK Pensions: Reply by the Government to the Third Report of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, Session 2002 03 [HC92-I], Cm 5846, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report
Date: 2003-Jun
The government announced the creation of a new fund to protect defined-benefit pension rights when companies failed. Pensioners would be guaranteed to receive 100 per cent of their pension, and non-pensioners would be guaranteed to receive 90 per cent of accrued pension rights. The scheme would be paid for by a levy on all private sector defined-benefit schemes. A 'misprint' in the Green Paper suggested that protection would apply retrospectively: the government said this was not the case. Employers warned that making pension schemes too costly could do more harm than good.
Source: Action on Occupational Pensions, Green Paper Cm 5835, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 11.6.03, columns 681-700, TSO | Press release 11.6.03, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | Hansard | DWP press release | DWP briefing paper (pdf) | CBI press release | TUC press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
A report looked at pensions from the perspective of the consumer. It said that the retail financial services industry was 'not fit for the purpose of delivering a secure and sustainable retirement package for consumers'. It proposed a seven-point plan to reform the pension system, including compulsory pensions contributions to build on the state pension.
Source: Blueprint for a National Pensions Policy, Consumers' Association (020 7770 7000)
Links: Summary (pdf) | Consumers' Association press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Jun
In its response to a Green Paper on pensions, the Equal Opportunities Commission said women's retirement incomes could not be improved without a radical rethink of the state pension scheme. It also said that compulsion was the only way to stem the closure of occupational pensions and extend the benefits of employer contributions to all employees. In the case of very lowly-paid workers, it said that compulsion should be backed by state credits to private schemes (or through the state second pension). It also recommended changes to the lower earnings limit threshold, the national insurance system, and home responsibilities protection.
Source: Response to the Department for Work and Pensions Green Paper 'Simplicity, Security and Choice: Working and Saving for Retirement', Equal Opportunities Commission (0161 833 9244)
Links: Response (pdf) | EOC press release | Green Paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Jun
Campaigners attacked the government's failure to provide costings for its proposals to simplify pensions taxation law.
Source: Response to 'Simplifying The Taxation Of Pensions: Increasing Choice And Flexibility For All', Northern Pensions Resource Group (0191 232 2968) and Independent Pensions Research Group
Links: Response | Government report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Apr
An official advisory body on pensions said legislation addressing the issue of security of pension schemes was needed if the so-called 'savings gap' were to be bridged. It called for a change in the minimum liability that a solvent company had to meet if it chose to cause its final-salary scheme to be wound up.
Source: OPAS Response to the Green Paper, Pensions Advisory Service (020 7630 2270)
Links: Response | Green Paper (pdf) | Green Paper summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Apr
A committee of MPs said the system of pension provision in the United Kingdom was basically sound, but that there were still too many pensioner households in poverty. It said there was nothing inherently wrong with a means-tested approach which focused available resources on the poorest pensioners, provided the issue of take-up was adequately addressed. An equality watchdog said that the MPs had ignored the problem of poverty among women in old age.
Source: The Future of UK Pensions, Third Report (Session 2002-03), HC 92-I, House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 12.4.03, Equal Opportunities Commission (0161 833 9244)
Links: Report | EOC press release
Date: 2003-Apr
A think-tank briefing paper examined whether the government's proposed pensions reforms were likely to help individuals make appropriate choices about retirement; and in particular whether they might prompt those individuals who were not thought to be providing sufficiently for their retirement to save more or to retire later.
Source: Carl Emmerson and Matthew Wakefield, Achieving Simplicity, Security and Choice in Retirement? Assessment of the government's proposed pension reforms, Briefing Note 36, Institute for Fiscal Studies (web publication only)
Links: Briefing Note 36 (pdf)
Date: 2003-Apr
A consumer body said that government plans for simplifying the (non-state) pensions framework would actually make pensions more complicated for people on low incomes, and would do little to guarantee them a reasonable retirement income.
Source: Simplicity, Security and Choice: Working and saving for retirement - Response to the Department for Work and Pensions Green Paper, National Consumer Council (020 7730 3469)
Links: Report (pdf) | National Consumer Council press release | Green Paper (pdf) | Green Paper summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Apr
A consumer group said government plans to launch a new range of simple investment products, and to relax the rules on how they might be sold, were not sufficiently robust to protect the interests of those on low incomes.
Source: Simplified Investment Products: Response to the Financial Services Authority and Treasury consultations, National Consumer Council (020 7730 3469)
Links: Report (pdf) | National Consumer Council press release
Date: 2003-Apr
A committee of MPs said that confusion about the state pensions system, and difficulties in understanding its complexity, were major barriers to take-up.
Source: Tackling Pensioner Poverty: Encouraging take-up of entitlements, Twelfth Report (Session 2002-03), HC 565, House of Commons Public Accounts Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Apr
Pensions campaigners said the government's approach to pensions was dominated by the objective of containing public expenditure, at the expense of considering the best means of guaranteeing security in retirement for all. They said that the main solution for the pension shortfall was for the National Insurance Fund to be used to pay a good level of state pension. The cost should be met through the necessary level of contributions, split on an equitable basis between employer and employee, along with a restored Treasury supplement.
Source: Response to 'Simplicity, Security and Choice: Working and earning for retirement' (the Pensions Green Paper), Northern Pensions Resource Group (0191 232 2968) and Independent Pensions Research Group
Links: Response | Green Paper (pdf) | Green Paper summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Apr
The government set the new 'low earnings threshold' for the new additional state pension (state second pension) for 2003-04 at 11,200. (From 2002 onwards, those earnings used to determine an additional pension that fall between the national insurance lower earnings limit and the low earnings threshold are treated as being at the threshold.)
Source: The Social Security Pensions (Low Earnings Threshold) Order 2003, Statutory Instrument 2003/324, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Statutory Instrument | Press release
Date: 2003-Mar
The government announced that, from April 2003, 'home responsibilities protection' will be extended to foster carers. This protects the basic state pension rights of people with long-term home responsibilities (lasting at least one year). Campaigners said this was only a small step in the right direction, pointing out that the extension was not retrospective, and that protection is for a limited number of years.
Source: Press release 18.3.03, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171) | Press release 17.3.03, Fostering Network (020 7620 6437)
Links: DWP press release | Fostering Network press release
Date: 2003-Mar
Responding to a government Green Paper, the Trades Union Congress said that action on pensions is needed in three main areas: more protection for scheme members when schemes are wound up, including the urgent implementation of the government s proposal for increased consultation rights; long-term pensions security for all through a new compulsion on employers to contribute to employee pensions, and linking the state retirement pension to wages; and a new occupational pensions regime that ensures schemes can meet their obligations through solvency insurance and a new 'pension protection fund'.
Source: TUC Response to the Pensions Green Paper, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Response | Summary | Press release
Date: 2003-Mar
A second reading was given to a private member's Bill which would reform the compulsory annuity purchase rules for certain types of private pensions. The requirement to purchase an annuity would be limited to an amount which would give the annuitant a minimum retirement income. It would also provide for greater flexibility over the application of any residual fund once the minimum retirement income had been met.
Source: Retirement Income Reform Bill, Edward Garnier MP, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill | HOC Library research paper (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
The insurance industry proposed a fundamental reform of the state second pension, with a more generous and flat-rate pension, better benefits for low-income groups, and improved contracting-out rebates. It said this was needed to prevent many middle-income groups being forced to claim means-tested benefits when they retire.
Source: Adequacy, Affordability and Incentives: A better future for state pensions, Association of British Insurers (020 7600 3333)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
A think-tank study found that individual savings accounts ('ISAs') are failing to help their key target group, low-income families, to increase their savings.
Source: Will Paxton, Tax Efficient Saving: The effectiveness of ISAs, Institute for Public Policy Research, available from Central Books (0845 458 9911)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Feb
A report said that although today s pensions landscape looks better than yesterday s, a serious crisis is looming, and that on current trends three quarters of today's workers will end up relying on means-tested pensions. It called for an immediate debate on the reform of state pensions. It said that whereas government policy assumes individuals will do more to save towards their income in retirement, the responsibilities of the state, employers and individuals still remain largely undefined.
Source: Alison O Connell and Chris Curry, The Pensions Landscape, Pensions Policy Institute (020 7848 3744)
Links: Report (pdf) | Press release (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb
The government began consultation on proposals for an extended range of simple, low-cost investment products. These products, as recommended in the Sandler review of July 2002, are aimed at increasing competition in the financial services industry and at making medium- and long-term savings more accessible to lower-income groups.
Source: Proposed Product Specifications for Sandler 'Stakeholder' Products: Consultation document, HM Treasury (020 7270 4558) and Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Consultation Document (pdf) | Treasury press release | Sandler report | Consumers' Association press release
Date: 2003-Feb
A think tank published a description of the United Kingdom pensions system, intended for people wanting to learn about pensions policy.
Source: The Pensions Primer, Pensions Policy Institute (020 7848 3744)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-Feb
A pamphlet argued for the creation of new 'people s pension funds', under which pension contributions would be invested in public infrastructure projects - thereby promoting saving while also supporting the renewal of public services.
Source: Richard Murphy, Colin Hines and Alan Simpson MP, People's Pensions: New Thinking for the 21st Century, New Economics Foundation, available from Central Books (020 8986 5488)
Links: Pamphlet (pdf) | Observer report
Date: 2003-Feb
A report presented findings from qualitative research investigating the reactions of members of defined-benefit pension schemes to information disclosing the funding position of their scheme. Members had a reasonable understanding of how their scheme worked, but were less clear about how its funds were managed.
Source: Lorna Adams and Karen Bunt, Communicating Information about the Funding of Occupational Pension Schemes to Scheme Members, In-House Report 110, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Press release
Date: 2003-Feb
A report said that pensions will be cut by a third in schemes being introduced by many employers to replace traditional final-salary schemes.
Source: Report by Bryn Davies (Union Pension Services), reported in The Observer, 5.1.03
Links: Observer report | BBC report
Date: 2003-Jan
Pensions campaigners strongly criticised the government's failure to quantify the cost of its proposed revamp of pension tax relief arrangements. They accused the government of doing its best to close off debate by limiting the information provided.
Source: Government Green Paper and Inland Revenue Review: A response, Independent Pensions Research Group (0191 232 2968) and Northern Pensions Resource Group
Links: Response
Date: 2003-Jan
The Opposition called for an independent inquiry into how the government calculates the aggregate amount people contribute to pension schemes.
Source: The Times, 13.1.03
Links: None
Date: 2003-Jan
A private member's Bill was introduced aimed at ensuring that all public sector pension schemes allow gay partners to receive survivor benefits, should one partner die.
Source: Public Sector Pensions (Unmarried Couples) Bill, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 21.1.03, columns 185-187, TSO
Links: Hansard | Stonewall press release
Date: 2003-Jan