Labour’s Pension Challenge
Building a progressive settlement

By Neil Churchill and Michelle Mitchell
A Catalyst Working Paper.
Published: October 2004

The UK pensions system is in need of radical reform. Though many of the poorest pensioners have been helped by the Labour government, some pockets of poverty have deepened since 1997. And increasing numbers of today’s workers have no access to adequate private or occupational coverage, holding out the prospect of a serious social, economic and political crisis in the future.

The challenge for Labour is to build a new consensus around a radical and durable pensions settlement that protects the poorest and achieves fairness for ordinary working people. As a contribution to the debate among voluntary organisations, trade unions, and Labour Party members, Neil Churchill and Michelle Mitchell offer their own proposals for change, based upon an extension of state provision as the most inclusive and redistributive form of “compulsion” available.

Neil Churchill and Michelle Mitchell both work for Age Concern, the UK’s largest federation of voluntary organisations working with and for older people. Michelle is also vice-chair of the Fawcett Society. This pamphlet is written in a personal capacity.

Read Executive Summary

See other Catalyst publications on this topic:
Better Pensions; The state’s responsibility
The Challenge of Longer Life: Economic burden or social opportunity?
From Security to Risk: Pension privatisation and gender inequality
Pension propaganda

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