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What the UK pension system needs is an apolitical, long-term agenda for change, but instead our politicians thrive on cyclical short-termism and opportunistic policy-making. Politics itself represents the biggest obstacle to change
On October 12, the Pensions Commission released its interim report, Pensions: Challenges and Choices.
This is the first stage of a process which started with the release of the Pensions Green Paper in December 2002. This formally appointed the Pensions Commission, invited Adair Turner to be its chairman and instructed it to report back to the Government on what needed to be done to solve the longer-term problems faced by the UK pension system.
The interim report, 500 pages plus, is heavy on data, analysis and problem-spotting but stops short of making any specific recommendations. Instead, if we are to believe Alan Johnson, the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the report is a first step in rebuilding confidence in the pension system and provides the platform for a Mrs Merton-esque "heated debate" within the public arena, which the Pensions Commission will draw on when it publishes its recommendations next year.
But hot air alone will not create the answers. Nor will a raft of carefully-worded soundbites emanating from the mouths of...