Points of View

John Gleadall - Senior Policy Manager, Wealth

07 July 2009

Joined up government?

Later this year the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will kick off its campaign of public education around the proposed 2012 pension reforms. They’ll probably start with the recent State Pension reforms and how they make state pensions a clear and well-understood base upon which to build private savings. They will of course eventually wind up with the line that we are all living much longer and will need adequate pensions, so Government will help by making sure you are automatically enrolled into an employer’s pension scheme of one sort or another.

At the same time, the Department for Health is running its “Change4life” programme. This aims to promote healthier diet and lifestyle among the population at large and is particularly aimed at parents forcing healthier options on their children. The message is, if I can exaggerate slightly, “ If you don’t stop eating everything you actually like, dump the Playstation, turn off the television and get your backside off the settee, then you won’t live long enough to need a pension”.

Two well meaning but ostensibly conflicting messages. AND they provide the perfect excuse for those not interested in pensions to carry on eating all the things they like, gluing themselves to the television etcetera etcetera, thus ignoring the DWP’s message altogether and ending up in penury in their old age!

Although this is a fairly lighthearted dig at public information provision, it does point up a serious need for consistency and absence of conflict in the messages coming from Government. I just hope, for the sake of the forthcoming pension reforms, that they take note.