Pensions are our property!

Eddie Phillips, national trade union side secretary for Department for National Savings Staff.

Over the past three years pension scandals have rocked the industry. Occupational pensions are still best for workers - if they can get one. Democratic control of occupational pension schemes by workers is crucial. Employers see pension schemes as their personal resource to plunder when the company needs capital. In truth, pensions are deferred wages - the workers' property.

Personal pensions are beyond many ordinary people. It's no wonder that up to 5 million people have no pension provision except the state pension scheme. A properly funded state pension is looking increasingly unlikely under a Blair Government. Taking their cue from the Commission on Social Justice, ideas such as the growth of private pension provision and abolition of universal state pension entitlement tail-end the Tories. Not a single original provision has come from their deliberations.

I would like to see the introduction of a state annuity based pension scheme. This is in fact already in development. The National Savings Pension Plan (NSPP) is a method for 'the missing millions' to make a form of provision additional to the state scheme. They could do this direct or at the Post Office. The Department for National Savings had operated annuities in the past and has management costs of 0.5% - 4%, much less than insurance companies. People could save regularly, by direct debit, by lump sums or occasionally as they have the money. An age related ready reckoner would allow them to know how much their contributions will entitle them to on retirement. Such a scheme should appeal to many employees transferred to the private sector and without an occupational scheme but unprepared to be ripped-off by the private finance industries pension plans.

I am not suggesting this is a consistent socialist solution to the present pensions dilemma. That could only come from the state scheme which fully protects all workers and their families from poverty. What an NSPP would do is offer a safety net for a large number of people who need it the most.

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