Mellon Financial Corporation’s Human Resources & Investor Solutions (HR&IS) business has renewed its call for the establishment of a new independent and apolitical pensions authority in the UK, to correct what it sees as the “failures” of the current Pensions Bill.
In its submission to the Pickering Committee in 2002 Mellon identified a number of problems requiring solutions if the UK’s pensions crisis was to be solved. But it asserted that the problems would not be resolved without a fundamental change in the underlying process of policy development and implementation.
With little evidence of any overview to establish consistent pensions policy, Mellon say a single independent body able to design and implement a cohesive consistent and comprehensive pensions regime is the logical answer. This would place a greater weight upon the views of full-time pensions experts, rather than politicians, and enable vital and appropriate policy decisions to be taken and implemented.
“We clearly said in 2002 that without this reform pensions would continue to stagger from crisis to crisis in the time-honoured tradition, and take no comfort in being proved right,” says Kevin LeGrand, Head of Technical Services at Mellon-HR&IS. “It’s “Make Your Mind Up Time” for politicians in the run-up to the next election – the country cannot continue to have brief flirtations with short-lived policy initiatives. It is high time politicians took a step back and let the professionals get on with the job of designing and implementing a pensions policy for the long-term. Pensions are a long-term issue; they just will not work unless a long-term perspective is taken.”