UK – UK actuaries have become the latest group to call for a permanent Pensions Commission.

The Actuarial Profession said that the body, which is due to be wound down, “should be made permanent in order to ensure that that the equation between increasing life expectancy and the rising state pension age remains fair”.

Last week the Trades Union Congress called for the Commission, which was chaired by Lord Turner, to be made permanent.

The Actuarial Profession also urged pensioners to spend more of their savings in retirement. The Profession stated that government, regulators and the savings industry had “missed a trick” by presenting the saving process as a duty, rather than a pleasure.

Meanwhile, Alan Pickering, the former chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, said the Commission’s proposed National Pensions Savings Scheme could do “lethal damage” to UK pensions.

The Watson Wyatt partner said: "First we had personal pensions, then we had stakeholder pensions now we have NPSS pensions.

“Successive governments seek to secure their legacy by launching a soundbite pension product which is seen as a cure-all.

“The Pensions Commission made a number of recommendations including labour market modernisation to ensure that the talent of older workers is not wasted and a bigger state pension payable from a later age in order to remove, once and for all, the scourge of absolute poverty among our elderly citizens.”


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