WIREDGOV

The CBI yesterday responded to Government proposals to create a pooled pensions fund in the private pensions industry.

Neil Carberry, CBI Director for Employment and Skills, said:

“We should be focussed on ensuring pensions schemes are a good deal for employees. It may be that a few larger firms can enter into the sort of collective scheme that shares risks between individual savers.

“While it is right to look at what could be achieved by more innovative scheme designs, there are still grey areas around how this would actually work, and how risks would be managed. It’s important businesses have legal certainty over the status and future of these schemes, especially as cross-subsidy between members will mean that in some years some savers may have to take a reduction in benefits.

“The vast majority of saving will continue to be in individual defined contribution schemes, which represent the future for most employees. The Government’s first priority must be setting the right framework for a competitive DC workplace pensions market. This should not mean the kind of regulation that would lead to the kind of levelling down that would damage pensions in the long run.”

Note to Editors:

The CBI is the UK's leading business organisation, speaking for some 240,000 businesses that together employ around a third of the private sector workforce. With offices across the UK as well as representation in Brussels, Washington, Beijing and Delhi the CBI communicates the British business voice around the world