Briefing notes
Briefing notes inform the reader of the key facts and figures in a succinct fashion – and where relevant also the state of the policy debate and public opinion - on specific pension issues.
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Unfunded public sector pension liabilities and debt in national accounts
It has been argued that public sector pension liabilities are “the UK’s second national debt”, and that the government should be transparent about it and account for this liability in its published debt figures. One consequence of reclassifying the estimated £1 trillion liabilities as “debt” would be a doubling of the official debt stock and hence also the debt to GDP
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Back to the drawing board: The economic crisis and its implications for pension provision in the UK: An update
In June 2009, we published our paper Back to the drawing board: The economic crisis and its implications for pension provision in the United Kingdom. We argued that the economic crisis had highlighted not only weaknesses in financial markets and regulation but also in existing pension systems in many countries. The paper presented and discussed the myriad channels
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Tax relief on employer and employee pension contributions: rationale, value and distribution
This briefing note focuses on one particular aspect of the British pensions landscape, namely that of tax relief. Tax relief has been a controversial issue for a long time and returned fully to the limelight in early 2009 when the Government announced that it would reduce tax relief on pension contributions for those on incomes of £150,000 and over, arguing that high income
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