Elephantstrunk

State pensions for the rich and private pensions for the poor is this season’s pension panacea.

Legal pressure on the government over Equitable Life, the Ombudsman’s report, the FAS and PPF and renewed umbrage over Gordon Brown’s removal of a tax break from still highly favoured pension investment all effectively demand that the government guarantee pension arrangements made entirely privately. It receives an awful lot of support from the conservative press and comes despite fierce opposition to the minimum funding requirement and Stephen Yeo’s remarkably upright position that it is not one of the top three suspects in the murder of the final salary pension scheme.

Meanwhile conservative thinktanks and neoliberal economists want to replace state pensions with equity investments.

Pension law comes up short in important places but pensioners are being held to ransom the government is not the kidnapper.