The Politics of Pension Reform: The Politics of Pension Reform

The politics of pension reform is just as important as the policy itself. In this pamphlet, Richard Brooks and John Denham argue that the government must get the politics right if it is to achieve what has eluded its predecessors and establish a pensions settlement which endures for future generations.

Brooks and Denham set out how the government should lead and shape debate so as to build a consensus to make reform politically possible in the short term, and durable in the long term. They argue that a revitalised basic state pension should provide the foundations for reform; set out the principles for state support of second pensions; show the options for funding pensions reform; and clarify the confusion in the controversial public debate about compulsion. They show how the government can focus stakeholder debate on the critical issues, whilst stressing that the ultimate arbiters of pensions policy are the public. Because, in the long term, theirs is the only consensus that matters.

The pamphlet contains responses to their proposals from key stakeholders: Digby Jones of the CBI, Brendan Barber of the TUC, Ian Naismith of Scottish Widows, Alison O’Connell and Chris Curry of the Pensions Policy Institute and Christine Farnish of the National Association of Pension Funds.

You can buy a printed copy edition of “The Politics of Pension Reform” for £6.95, plus £1 p+p, by phoning the Fabian Society bookshop on 020 7227 4900, emailing us at bookshop@fabian-society.org.uk or send a cheque payable to “The Fabian Society” to 11 Dartmouth Street, London, SW1H 9BN.