Downing Street Says

Asked if the Prime Minister had chosen whether there was going to be an increase in taxes, or if people would have to work longer, or if people would have to save more as the answer to the pensions crisis, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) told the journalist that it was better to wait until the 30th November when the Turner Report was published, and then we would give our response. As the PMOS had said this morning, the important thing was that no-one should rule anything in or anything out at this stage.

Asked if the Government was committed to doing something before the next election, the PMOS said that the position remained the same as was stated during the election, but people should wait until the 30th November.

Put to the PMOS that during the election, it was stated that pensions should be a matter for public discussion, and was it not in the manifesto, the PMOS said again it was better to wait until the 30th November, and then the Government would respond in the way that it was going to respond.

Asked if the position had therefore not changed, the PMOS said that Ministers had stated the position during the election campaign, so we should wait until the 30th November, see the report, and then we would respond.

Put that as the PMOS had said that nothing could be ruled out of the Turner report, and that it might include people working until they were 67, how did the Prime Minister therefore justify the deal done with the trade unions that public sector workers should continue to retire at 60, or did the Prime Minister regret it, the PMOS said that it was purely coincidental that the journalist missed out the PMOS’s words when he had also said that nothing should be ruled in! In terms of the public sector pension deal, as the PMOS had said over the past two days, that £13 billion would be saved between now and 2050. When the new pension arrangements come into place next year, and there was a ten per cent turnover of civil servants per year, that meant in seven years time, fifty per cent of the staff would be working under the new pensions arrangements. Within a decade, because of the turnover, the vast majority of civil servants would be working under the new scheme. As people could see, in terms of the turnover of staff, the proportion of staff who would not be affected by the new arrangements would fall substantially each year.

Asked what new arrangements were, as the retirement age for public sector workers was staying at 60, the PMOS said that the new arrangements were that for new entrants to the civil service, the age would be 65.

Asked in general terms, what was the Prime Minister’s assessment of the national pensions provision, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had set up a major review under Lord Turner which would report on the 30th November, and it was better to wait until then, rather than give a knee-jerk response!

Asked why did the Prime Minister set up the Turner Report, the PMOS replied that there was a fundamental issue which had to be addressed, given the changing demographics. The demographics were not restricted to this country by any means, as the UK was better placed than others. The PMOS told journalists that when the Welfare State was set up, there were ten people in work for every one in retirement. Now, there were four people in work for every one in retirement, and in fifty years time, that would change to two people in work to every one in retirement.

Asked if the Prime Minister had investigated how other countries had coped with their pensions issues, the PMOS said that again, part of setting up Lord Turner’s Review was to look at the international comparisons.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Thursday, November 17, 2005

Pensions

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries