Labour’s candidate in Normanton and Chancellor Gordon Brown’s top aide, Ed Balls, has publicly ruled out compulsory pension saving for the years to come should Labour win a further term.
Speaking at a recent press conference, Balls, said that Labour would wait for expert advice on pensions policy and warned that ‘future elections will occur’ before changes get implemented.
Last October, Adair Turner revealed a pension shortfall of £57 billion a year; compulsory savings is one of the options being considered in Turner’s final recommendations a move supported by the Trades Union Congress but opposed by bosses’ group the CBI.
But just days before, Cabinet Minster Peter Hain indicated that action on the pension problem would be taken ‘sooner rather than later’ causing some confusion as to the state of play.
Commenting, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary David Willetts said Labour’s policy had “descended into chaos”.
“Gordon Brown’s closest ally says a Labour Government would wait at least four years before doing anything about the pensions crisis. But just ten days ago, Peter Hain said there would be a big change in policy ‘sooner rather than later’, and that this was going to ‘surprise people’. In between, Labour’s pensions minister couldn’t rule out forcing people to save and then cutting the tax relief on pension contributions,” he declared.
Related items
- Feature: HRZone talks ‘pensions’ with Legal and General
- Editor’s Comment: Beating the pension time bomb
- Colborn’s Corner: Pensions – whose crisis is it?
