Turner review of pensions 'cost taxpayers £1.6m'
Lord Turner's report to be delivered this week as full costs are revealed
The Turner report into pensions is to be delivered this week and is believed
to have cost taxpayers £1.6m even though it is unlikely to be implemented by the
government.
According to reports in The Daily Telegraph, a response to
a Parliamentary question from Sir Malcom Rifkind, shadow work and pensions
secretary, revealed that Lord Turner is spending £33,000 a month on staffing
costs, and a further £16,000 a month that is split between ‘non-staff costs’ and
‘social research’.
Lord Turner said he had nine or 10 staff during the review all of whom were
‘very good-quality people… senior graduates and experts’.
He said the staffing costs ‘will pay their salary, their National Insurance
and their pension contributions. We were given the resources needed to do the
job, and we did the job. They are mainly Department for Work and Pensions civil
servants.’
The report’s fate is uncertain after the chancellor wrote to Lord Turner
recently saying that his key proposals were ‘unaffordable and unsustainable’.
The main recommendations in the report are said to include raising the state
retirement age to 67 and ensuring contributions worth 8% of salary are paid into
a national pensions saving scheme.