Gosling's Grouse: Pensions fairness

Pensions fairness

Pensions fairness has been steadily building as a significant issue over the past decade and, with a rapidly ageing and expanding retired population, it is likely to be a major demographic issue facing all political parties.

We first saw ‘fairness’ come to light on the back of the Maxwell affair, following the theft by Robert Maxwell of much of the assets of the Mirror newspaper group’s pension scheme. Now sooner had we got to grips with that, than we had the effective collapse of Equitable Life and the impact on a more vociferous group of retired people. In both cases the pensioners claimed it was unfair that someone, somewhere was not going to bail them out. Whatever your opinion of either case, the basic premise is the same: for decades people paid into schemes they believed would look after them in t...