Is it fourth time lucky?

WHO’D be Secretary of State for Work and Pensions? Given the turnover of previous incumbents, new boy John Hutton would be showing extreme confidence in his future role if he bothered to decorate his desk with his favourite family photos. If you’ve been counting, you’ll know that since 2004, there have been four men who’ve taken on this difficult job. And what’s happened in that time? The pensions situation has gone from bad to worse. More hard-working men and women have seen the pensions they were relying on snatched away from them. The Pensions Credit system has proved an increasing embarrassment. The Government’s favourite child, the Stakeholder Pension, has failed to thrive despite repeated pushes to plug its attractions. Go back to the start of this Labour government, when the abolition of dividend tax credit dealt a £5 billion a year body blow to pension schemes, and you’ll see the root of many of today’s problems. Take all these things together and it’s really hardly surprising that confidence in pensions is so low. However, not all the pension problems now faced are down to recent government activity. As we’ve shown in recent weeks in Money Mail, a lot of the troubles now faced have been down to decisions made years ago when pension rules were different. Women in particular have bombarded us with concerns over their future. This week we’ve attempted to answer many of their queries. But the overall conclusion is that we’ve all been badly served by the pensions system for years — and now it’s up to the new Work and Pensions secretary to sort it all out. So, quite a difficult job then for Mr Hutton, and certainly not one that many of us would envy (even given the ministerial limousine and chunky pay packet). But surely it’s a rewarding one — it must be more intellectually challenging than his previous job as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Let’s hope he is given time to make a difference and isn’t ordered to pack up his bits and bobs and move on before he’s got to grips with the basics of pensions.

THERE’S one group of Britons who have few worries about their pensions. Hidden away in Parliamentary written answers last week was the stunning information that employer contributions to the judiciary’s final salary pension scheme are currently 29.25pc and will rise to 30.75pc from April 1, 2006. According to the National Association of Pension Funds, the typical employer contribution to a final salary pension scheme is 16pc in the public sector. Remember, it’s you and I who pay for judges’ pensions through our taxes. In contrast, a survey out today finds that two thirds of pensioners live on less than £150 a week, and some spend just £1 a day on food. And more than half of those interviewed by charity IndependentAge don’t claim benefits — many because they don’t want to go through the demeaning means-test system. These two extremes just go to show what a challenge Mr Hutton faces in trying to restore some justice in the pensions system.

c.beugge@dailymail.co.uk