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Support Global Action on Aging!
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Government
Pensions Green Paper 'too narrow focused' By Quentin Reade The National
Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) says the Government has missed a golden
opportunity to simplify the pensions landscape and boost future retirement
saving. The NAPF has welcomed measures in the Government’s Pensions Green Paper that will simplify the running of workplace pension schemes. But, it warned, the proposals will do nothing to boost public confidence in pensions by simplifying the complex state pension system. Nor would they offer incentives to save, either to pension scheme members or employers who provide them. The NAPF said that with growing numbers of employers closing their final salary pension schemes to new members, the Green Paper proposals will not reverse this trend, and is unlikely even to halt it. NAPF chairman Peter
Thompson, said: “Any simplification of the pensions landscape is welcome,
and the Green Paper provides a number of positive and practical proposals to
ease the administrative burden on employers with workplace pensions. “But the Green Paper
proposals are too narrowly focused. They fail to address the problem of
complexity in the state pension system, which is a critical barrier to
building public understanding of, and confidence in, pensions. They also
offer no boost to incentives to save through a pension. “What was - and
still is - needed is a root and branch review of pensions coverage in the
UK. The Inland Revenue succeeded in identifying radical and positive ideas
for reform of the tax regime for pensions. I am disappointed that the DWP
has failed to take this golden opportunity to bring about equally radical
change in the wider pensions regime.”
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2002 Global Action on Aging
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