Treasury does not 'understand' pensions
Taxes and National Insurance will have to rise to meet the £57bn pension shortfall, a former minister has claimed.
Link:Urgent reforms vital to boost pensions
In a wholesale attack on the Treasury’s handling of the pensions issue, John Denham, said the department was to blame for the growing mess on pensions.
Denham, who quit the government in 2003 because of the Iraq war, said the Treasury had ‘always done the sort of things that will reduce the provision of occupational pensions and now we have ended up with a real problem’.
He added: ‘The Treasury dominates pensions and doesn’t really understand pensions.’
Denham said taxes and National Insurance would have to go up to protect the pensioners of the future.
His comments came just days after the publication of the Turner report, which higlighted the problem of pension provision in the UK.
Before publication, Chancellor Gordon Brown ruled out tax increases to meet the funding shortfall.