‘Working and Saving for Retirement’: New Labour’s Reform of Company Pensions

In a number of recent policy statements, the Labour government has developed a series of reforms for employer-sponsored company pension schemes, an integral element of the contracting out arrangement of compulsory second-tier pensions. At best, the reforms are ambivalent. While they address a number of important issues, they are likely to reinforce income insecurity. Above all, we identify a range of issues that must be integral to the reform of company pensions, but that have been ignored by the government – compulsory employer contributions, universality and the role of employees in sponsoring and administering pension schemes.