12 July 2005 - Women’s pensions to be key focus in national debate - Blunkett
A new report on Women and Pensions and a separate event focussing specifically on the issue will form a major strand of the National Pensions Debate, David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, announced today.
Speaking at the launch of the Fabian Society’s new pamphlet, The Politics of Pensions Reform, Mr Blunkett welcomed the profile that is being given to the issue of women and pensions and commended the work being done by numerous organisations to highlight the inequalities in the current system.
Mr Blunkett said:
“With initiatives such as Pension Credit and the Winter Fuel Payments, much progress has been made on improving the position of women in retirement. Since 1997, 1.3 million women in retirement have been lifted out of absolute poverty and around two thirds of the 5.8 million low earners benefiting from the State Second Pension are women.
“However, I readily accept that inequalities in the current system are a serious issue, which is why I believe we need to highlight it in the current National Pensions Debate and give it the individual focus it deserves.
“Today I can announce that we will soon be hosting an event to look specifically at how we can make the pensions system work better for women. I will also publish, prior to the event, a detailed analysis of the current situation that can be used to inform the debate and ensure any future recommendations fully address the problems faced.”
During the speech, Mr Blunkett also confirmed that the department will be publishing new guidelines regarding the regulations on how to use ‘opt-out’ techniques for joining workplace pension schemes.
The guidelines explain one way in which employers who run Stakeholder pension or Group Personal Pension schemes can provide for their employees to become members. ‘Opt-out’ means employees join their scheme automatically without having to make a separate application for membership. If they don’t want to join the scheme they can sign a form to ‘opt-out’.
Mr Blunkett said:
“We decided to issue these guidelines following discussions with industry and employers who said they were unsure if they could use ‘opt-out’ in workplace personal pension schemes under the law as it currently stands. Employees will be able to ‘opt-out’ of the scheme if they prefer, whether to make alternative provision or otherwise.
“Research has shown that where employers use an ‘opt-out’ approach, membership of the company pension scheme can go up by nearly 30% . The new guidelines show companies how they can use ‘opt-out’ if appropriate to help more of their employees to make the most of available pension provision. I would urge them to consider whether this approach is suitable for their arrangements, and of benefit to their members.”
Notes for Editors
- David Blunkett made these announcements whilst speaking at the Fabian Society in London. The speech will be available online at: www.dwp.gov.uk
- The guidance, Automatic enrolment in workplace pension schemes can be accessed online at: http://www.pensionsatwork.gov.uk/latestnews/latest.htm
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