/ Pensions / Public affairs

That, Mr Anderson, is the sound of inevitability

Agent Smith’s words to Neo might have a special resonance to public sector workers this week as they stand bravely, Canute-style in the face of pensions reform.

The argument is too much, too soon, and we’ve already moved to a sustainable basis. But the truth is that the public don’t want their servants to have superannuation schemes any more. After all, why should the ghillie have better provision than the laird? Or so says the Daily Mail.

This is what m’lord Hutton meant when he said that public sector pension reform was no longer just an affordability issue. It’s a political one, and all the threats of the next General Strike mean nothing while public servants are perceived to enjoy better pensions and, crucially, job security than their counterparts in the private sector.

The lang cat is a bit of an old pinko liberal, and I can’t help feeling that we’ve been on a crash course towards this for decades. Every time you voted for a tax cut, every time you told Sid and bought a privatisation issue, every time you looked the other way as market forces inveigled their way into the public sector – whether under a red or blue government – you were moving closer to the moment when public servants started just becoming employees like everyone else. And plenty of people in the public and third sectors did all of those things. No point crying about it now.

What the public sector is left with remains one of the best schemes in the country. Dave Prentis may consider himself The One, but for me the best job he can do is to fight hard to protect the covenant as it now stands for a set period into the future – perhaps 20 or 30 years. As general public understanding of pensions increases, and the private sector dumbs its provision down still further, public servants will still be on the gold standard.

Now, repeat after me. There is no spoon. There is no spoon…

/ Blogs

HomeGame 4 – complete!

Thank you to all of those who made it to our beautiful venue at Patina in Edinburgh and to those who joined us online! There will be more content available

Impact of poor service

/ White papers

The Impact of Poor Service

We provided the research for a report, in conjunction with Parmenion, which reveals how far short of expectations many adviser platforms are falling. The research found that over the last 12 months, 88% of advisers needed to apologise to at least one of their clients on behalf of a platform, and that poor service delivery from platforms impacts 91% of advisers every day.

Impact of poor service

/ White papers

The Impact of Poor Platform Service

We provided the research for a report, in conjunction with Parmenion, which reveals how far short of expectations many adviser platforms are falling. The research found that over the last 12 months, 88% of advisers needed to apologise to at least one of their clients on behalf of a platform, and that poor service delivery from platforms impacts 91% of advisers every day.

/ White papers

Answering the Call

Service means a lot of things to a lot of different people. It’s so subjective it can be hard to put your finger on. This paper aims to challenge the status quo and inertia that’s built up in the sector for many years.