The Personal Accounts Delivery Authority has announced a near £400,000 rebrand of it’s new offering. Goodbye Personal Accounts (which did exactly what it says on the tin) and Hello to NEST or more accurately perhaps, the NEST Corporation.
I have it on very good authority that this has no connection to SMERSH, the KGB or white furry cats being cuddled by mad dictators (although I think I can just about see Tim Jones stroking one!!), but is instead the new name for the organisation which will oversee the Peoples’ Pension Scheme (my term, a bit Post Office ish but pretty good I thought!!)
Whether this rebrand is a) worth the money – £8000 just for a egg shaped orange logo – or b) merely window dressing for an additional layer of complexity in our already over regulated pension universe, remains open for debate.
Only one player remains in the race to provide the infrastructure for this initiative, all the others having dropped out for one reason or another (the main one I suspect being that they couldn’t see the point of effectively replicating the National Insurance scheme and building a computer system which will almost certainly be inferior (that’s saying something) and too complex to be cost effective.
Having said that, any form of enforced pension saving beyond the Basic State Pension is better than nothing. But how long or if it will survive a change of Government in it’s present form is anyone’s guess.
What is clear is that one way or another, employers must start to plan for the introduction of NEST – and while we are aware that the commencement has been delayed from the original start date, I suspect that SOMETHING will be introduced even if modified from what is currently being expected. As I’ve said before, no political party seems to be able to resist meddling in pension policy. And I fully expect more legislation before too long.
Jennie advises large multi-employer schemes as well as smaller single employer arrangements and has wide experience of both Defined Contribution and Defined Benefit schemes. Jennie qualified in 1986 originally as a criminal prosecutor. She sits as a Magistrate in her local justice area and is an Approved Chairman and Deputy Chair of the Bench Training and Development Committee. Jennie was formerly Legal Director of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority. When her busy practice allows, Jennie likes to indulge her passion for travelling. To consult Jennie on any corporate Pensions matter, please call her on +44 (0)20 7749 2700 or send her an email by clicking below:
thanks for this brilliantly funny and perceptive article.
I’m also asking the question..
“Is rebranding Personal Accounts “NEST” a distraction from the main event- getting proper retirement provision for all?”
There was some really good work done by Demos in 1997/8 on what would be needed to get people off means tested benefits. Frank Field tried to adopt it.
http://www.demos.co.uk/files/reasonableforce.pdf?1240939425
I’ve done some rough and ready calculations which suggest that your Nest Egg would need to be about £180,000 if with BSP (but withoutS2P) you would be free of Pension Credits
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