Millions of workers will have their retirement incomes stripped of up to three quarters of their value after ministers abandoned savers to predatory private pension providers, a report warns.
The collapse of 'defined benefit' schemes, including gold-plated final-salary pensions, has reduced the levels of saving for retirement, according to a report from the Civitas social policy think tank.
The failure of successive governments to protect consumers has also allowed sharp practices among providers, pushing down the overall value of millions of pensions, the study reveals.
Overall, millions of Britons will be worse off in old age than they should be, according to the report's authors, pensions expert Peter Morris and Alasdair Palmer, public policy editor of The Sunday Telegraph.
The report accuses successive governments, dating back to Margaret Thatcher's Conservative administration, of quitting the field on pensions because of a dogmatic reliance ... on free-market principles.
This has meant individuals, rather than employers, have taken on more and more responsibility for their own retirement funds.
Rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...retirement-income-after-pension-changes..html
The collapse of 'defined benefit' schemes, including gold-plated final-salary pensions, has reduced the levels of saving for retirement, according to a report from the Civitas social policy think tank.
The failure of successive governments to protect consumers has also allowed sharp practices among providers, pushing down the overall value of millions of pensions, the study reveals.
Overall, millions of Britons will be worse off in old age than they should be, according to the report's authors, pensions expert Peter Morris and Alasdair Palmer, public policy editor of The Sunday Telegraph.
The report accuses successive governments, dating back to Margaret Thatcher's Conservative administration, of quitting the field on pensions because of a dogmatic reliance ... on free-market principles.
This has meant individuals, rather than employers, have taken on more and more responsibility for their own retirement funds.
Rest of article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...retirement-income-after-pension-changes..html
