Department for Work and Pensions: Public Consultation: Better Workplace Pensions: A Consultation on Charging - Cm. 8737

Department for Work and Pensions: Public Consultation: Better Workplace Pensions: A Consultation on Charging - Cm. 8737
Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2013-10-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780101873727

This Government is proposing to introduce a system of automatic pensions transfers to help people to better keep track of their workplace pension savings. The majority of people being automatically enrolled are likely to join the default fund in defined contribution (DC) schemes. It is, therefore, important to ensure that these schemes deliver the best possible value for money. The impact of the charges levied on people's pensions savings over their lifetime can be significant - seemingly small variations in charges can result in a considerable difference in people's final retirement savings. A number of voluntary industry initiatives seeking to improve disclosure of charges information to scheme members and employers have been launched in an effort to reduce the complexity of the product. The Government welcomes these initiatives, but is interested in views on whether further action is required. There are a number of potential options: mandating disclosure to members by widening the disclosure requirements, to include information about charges; standardising disclosure to employers; or disclosure of transaction costs - require disclosure to members, employers, as well as trustees, and independent governance committees (as recommended by the OFT). The Government is also interested in hearing views on whether: a cap on pension scheme charges should be introduced; differential charging between active and deferred members should be banned in DC qualifying schemes; the ban on consultancy charges should be extended from AE schemes to all qualifying DC schemes; adviser commissions set up prior to the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review should be banned in qualifying schemes

Department for Work and Pensions: Public Consultation: Reshaping Workplace Pensions for Future Generations - Cm. 8710

Department for Work and Pensions: Public Consultation: Reshaping Workplace Pensions for Future Generations - Cm. 8710
Author: Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 74
Release: 2013-11-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780101871020

In Reinvigorating workplace pensions1 published last November, the Government set out to explore whether there was scope for a new category of defined ambition (DA) pensions that would complement the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) structures that currently dominate the market. Automatic enrolment and the single-tier State Pension will provide a firm foundation for saving for retirement. But if the current forms of DC pension saving become the default alternative to traditional DB, the pension income of future generations from workplace pensions will be more uncertain than for past generations. Over the last 12 months the DA project - a joint project between DWP and the pensions industry - has been exploring options in a middle ground. The Government proposes that the regulation of workplace pension schemes should not focus on the detail of benefit design but on what is important to the member: ensuring that any promise or guarantee, whether from the sponsoring employer or scheme, provider is delivered. This Government proposes to make it easier for employers to sponsor new pension schemes where benefits accrue on a specified basis (e.g. related to salary); and also to allow additional flexibilities for future accruals only within existing DB schemes, including the possibility of allowing a statutory override to facilitate these changes. The new flexibility will remove constraints from the existing legislative framework while still giving employees the certainty of a pension scheme where the benefits are defined (such as in relation to their salary) with the security of the promise being sponsored by their employer

Reforming the Greek Pension System

Reforming the Greek Pension System
Author: Mr. Alvar Kangur
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2021-07-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1513588842

The Greek pension system has been costly, complex, and distortive, which has contributed to Greece’s fiscal problems and discouraged labor force participation. Several attempts to reform the system faltered due to lack of implementation, pushback by vested interests, and court rulings leading to reversals. A series of reforms introduced throughout 2015–17 unified benefit and contribution rules, removed several distortions and reduced fragmentation and costs. If fully implemented throughout the long-term, these reforms can go a long way towards enhancing the pension system affordability. However, reforms faced setbacks and fell short of creating stronger incentives to build long contribution histories, to deliver sustainable growth by improving the fiscal policy mix, and to ensure fairness and equitable burden sharing across generations and interest groups. Policy priorities should aim towards fully implementing the 2015–17 reforms and complementing them with additional reforms to address these remaining objectives.

Privatizing Pensions

Privatizing Pensions
Author: Mitchell A. Orenstein
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2008-08-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400837669

To what extent do international organizations, global policy networks, and transnational policy entrepreneurs influence domestic policy makers? Have we entered a new phase of globalization that, unbeknownst to most citizens, shapes policies that used to be the sole domain of domestic politics? Privatizing Pensions reveals how international institutions--such as the World Bank, USAID, and other transnational policy actors--have played a seminal role in the development, diffusion, and implementation of new pension reforms that are transforming the postwar social contract in more than thirty countries worldwide, including the United States. Mitchell Orenstein shows how transnational actors have driven change in a policy area once thought to be beyond reform in many countries, and how they have done so by deploying their unique resources and legitimacy to promote new ideas, recruit disciples worldwide, and provide a broad range of technical assistance to government reformers over the long term. He demonstrates that while domestic decision makers may retain veto power over these reforms--which replace traditional social security with individual pension savings accounts--transnational policy makers play the role of "proposal actors," shaping the information, preferences, and resources of their domestic clients. Privatizing Pensions argues that even the most quintessentially domestic areas of policy have been thoroughly globalized, and that these international influences must be better understood.

Pension Reform

Pension Reform
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2006-07-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 021503001X

Pension Reform : Fourth report of session 2005-06, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence

Social Security Pensions

Social Security Pensions
Author: C. Gillion
Publisher: International Labor Office
Total Pages: 808
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

By providing a balanced assessment and factual review of the praticalities and structure behind various pension schemes around the world, this book assists decision-makers in forming effective, viable pension policy.

Pension Reform and the Development of Pension Systems

Pension Reform and the Development of Pension Systems
Author: Emily S. Andrews
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821365525

"Formal pension systems are an important means of reducing poverty among the aged. In recent years, however, pension reform has become a pressing matter, as demographic aging, poor administration, early retirement, and unaffordable benefits have strained pension balances and overall public finances. Pension systems have become a source of macroeconomic instability, a constraint to economic growth, and an ineffective and/or inequitable provider of retirement income."

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income
Author: Gordon L. Clark
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 954
Release: 2006-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780199272464

This handbook draws on research from a range of academic disciplines to reflect on the implications for provisions of pension and retirement income of demographic ageing. it reviews the latest research, policy related tools, analytical methods and techniques and major theoretical frameworks.