Pension reformers aim for second Parliamentary seat

9 April 2010 10:39 am | By Lee Jones

Parliamentary candidate Ben Shaw will be standing for the U Party in the Westminster North constituency, following party leader Pinsent Masons head of strategic development for pensions Robin Ellison, who is standing in Hampstead and Kilburn.

The U Party says it wants to reform pension policy in the UK to deliver “fair and simple retirement options that will meet the needs of the public and bring to an end the ineffective, short-term fixes of successive governments”.

Shaw, who is also development director at the Occupational Pensions Trust, says: “People aren’t properly saving for their retirement. The current retirement age is in the mid to high 60’s, yet longevity is increasing – one in four people in their 30’s is expected to live until they are 100. You do the maths and wonder how people who are not putting away any money at the moment are going to survive in their 30-years plus of retirement.

“Successive governments have failed the public by making the state pensions system excessively complex and overburdening the private system with regulation and constraints as well as introducing policies which have undermined public confidence in pensions as retirement savings vehicles.”

The U Party’s pension manifesto calls for the simplification of the four state pension systems into one, the dismantling of the regulatory framework for occupational pension and a fiscally neutral tax framework for pension.

Shaw says: “The purpose of the U Party is about trying to find a solution that is relevant to both the private and public sectors to ensure everybody in the country has decent provision for their retirement.”

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