Employees may be compelled to save into pensions
Work and pensions secretary David Blunkett has refused to rule out legislation compelling employees to save into private pensions.
Mr Blunkett said that he is willing to consider all options identified in the recent report from the Employer Task Force on Pensions.
The report recommends that employers raise participation rates and contribution levels by offering greater flexibility on savings, and by introducing automatic enrolment, active decision-making and pre-agreed pension savings programmes. It also warns employers that if private pension provision cannot be made to work, the government should introduce higher taxes and/or compulsion.
Mr Blunkett asserted that: 'There are no off-limits here. We have got to be able to address quickly and decisively where we are going . . . I want to build a consensus so I want . . . to reach out to the other major political parties because we need a lasting solution for the decades ahead, not a quick fix'.
In a subsequent speech to the National Association of Pension Funds annual conference on 12 May, Mr Blunkett said that the Government will hold a seminar at the end of June 2005 to indicate its preferred solution to the pensions crisis. He stated that the seminar would provide 'broad signals ... [as to] the likely framework and direction' of the Government's pensions strategy.
The seminar is intended to lay the ground for the publication of the second report of the Pensions Commission, which will include policy recommendations, scheduled for Autumn 2005.
'No off-limits' in pension debate Read the report on Blunkett's interview, as published on the BBC website.
David Blunkett appointed work and pensions secretary The official press release on Blunkett's appointment, from the Department for Work and Pensions website.
Also
New pension
ministers in place IRS journal Occupational Pensions
reports.
Electing to make pensions a
priority Personnel Today's Mike Berry talks to pensions minister
Malcolm Wicks about Labour's third-term plans to tackle pensions
issues.
Labour's third term agenda XpertHR
looks ahead to the employment agenda for Labour's historic third term.
Pensions compulsion could be imminent, taskforce warns Read XpertHR's coverage of the launch of the Employer Task Force on Pensions' report.
Work and pensions: the five-year plan The Government's five-year plan for work and pensions will create the blueprint for employment policy in Labour's third term.
Pensions Commission consults on pensions crisis XpertHR reports on the January 2005 publication of the first report from the Pensions Commission.
