Securing a pension - Ministry is needed to fix this mess

PENSION planning may have been the root-canal work of managing your affairs – you do it when you have to but not a moment before. It combines cost, confusion and long-term speculation in the most opaque and unattractive way, yet deferring your involvement creates even more problems.

But, as the tens of thousands of workers trapped in grossly under-funded private schemes have come to realise, we need to pay far more attention to how retirement packages are managed and funded. We probably need to completely reappraise how we provide for a dignified old age.

Two statements issued yesterday reminded us this issue is unavoidable, fraught with complexity and, for a spiralling number of private sector workers, that expectations built up over long careers may not be realised.