Downing Street Says

» Monday, September 13, 2004

Pensions

Asked if the Prime Minister would accept the ‘widespread characterisation’ of the UK’s pensions industry being ‘in crisis’ and the gap in provision having ‘exploded’ during his term in office, the PMOS said that this was a problem which was being confronted internationally, as well as in the UK, because of a huge range of factors. It was therefore important to approach it in two ways: firstly by dealing with the immediate issues, as we were doing through the Pension Bill which had set up the Pension Protection Fund which would guarantee protection if a company went bust. We had also set aside £400m for the Financial Assistance Scheme to help those who had already suffered from this problem. However, it was also important to address the longer term issues, as we were doing through the Pensions Commission, under the chairmanship of Adair Turner. The Commission was due to report its findings in the autumn. After that we would be able to have a sensible debate looking at the issue in the round, rather than turn the whole thing into some sort of blame game.

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