Brand New Website Pensionomics.com Launches to Fuel National Debate on Pensions

London, 1 June 2010 – With pension reform high on the new Government's agenda, Pensionomics.com launches today, seizing the moment to help fuel the pensions debate. Launched as a resource for anyone wanting to contribute to the debate or research in this vital field, Pensionomics.com is a new website which provides easy, free and open access to industry-wide commentary and research on the pensions landscape in the UK and internationally.

The website will be a public forum, supporting debate in promotion of the core principles of efficiency, equity and sustainability in the provision of pensions in both the public and private sectors. Pensionomics is also tweeting: @Pensionomics.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Social Market Foundation, David Willetts MP and think tank Policy Exchange are amongst those to have spoken out on the pensions-related issues they feel the new government must address on Pensionomics.com. This includes arguments for raising the pension age, developing a proper strategy around low earners and dealing with the demographic challenges ahead.

Hosted Comment

David Willetts MP: “Traditional company pension schemes were a kind of contract between the generations and as that has broken down the challenge is to create new savings instruments that help people through the lifecycle, help younger people to start saving, and perhaps even once more spread the risk across the generations.”

Nigel Stanley, Trades Union Congress: “The easy way to give people better pensions is to raise the pension age, and distribute the same expenditure among fewer pensioners...But making them instead reliant on much meaner benefits for the unemployed, and the increasingly draconian regime that treats anyone without a job as a workshy scrounger hardly seems a social advance.”

Guy Bailey, CBI: “We…believe it is essential that, within its first months in office, the next government should establish an independent commission to investigate the true costs of public sector pensions, and to put forward principles for reform.”

Lawrence Kay, Policy Exchange: "The key pension policy challenge for the next government will be developing a proper strategy around low-earners…The central issue in this choice is whether the government wants to keep incentivising its staff to stay in the public sector by offering them generous pensions, or if it would prefer to risk more fluid staff movements by having total remuneration packages that are more up-front and akin to those offered in the private sector.”

Pensionomics.com aims to tackle a broad range of pension-related themes, including public policy; the role of capital markets; asset-liability management; state and private sector pensions; longevity; socio-political considerations; labour market issues and the economic history of pensions.

The website will link to Pensions Tomorrow, a research initiative devoted to pension and longevity at the London School of Economics, and will also include independent research and commentary from Pension Corporation’s Thought Leadership programme. Pension Corporation is the site sponsor and has paid for its development, but will have minimal editorial oversight.

Pensionomics.com currently hosts research topics including:

• the ongoing impact of the credit crunch on the UK pensions landscape
• international approaches to public sector pensions
• the current distribution of tax relief
• an analysis of the unfunded public sector pension liabilities and debt in the national accounts

“Pension Corporation has advocated a national debate for some time now on the future of pensions in this country. Although much is written about the cost of public sector pensions and the death of defined benefit, there is no real debate about what should be done. We have decided to help facilitate the debate through this independent website, which will be free to all users,” said Dr Bob Swarup, one of the lead contributors to Pensionomics.com and Partner, Pension Corporation.

“We intend Pensionomics.com to be a live forum for analysis and debate on the key pension issues, which ought to be addressed during this Parliament, from the challenges facing low earners but increasingly also those on above average incomes,” said Dr Frank Eich, Senior Economist, Pension Corporation. “We believe that Britain deserves a more efficient, equitable and sustainable pension system and that this cannot be achieved solely by moving to defined-contribution provision, but this is an issue that has all but been ignored to date.”

For further information:

Pension Corporation Jeremy Apfel +44 20 7105 2140

Financial Dynamics Rob Bailhache +44 20 7269 7200

Keren Perrott +44 20 7269 7218

About Pension Corporation

Pension Corporation is a leading provider of risk management solutions to the trustees and sponsors of defined benefit pension funds. It oversees pension fund liabilities of c.£6 billion and is affiliated to more than 100,000 pension scheme members or former members. Its FSA authorised and regulated insurance company, Pension Insurance Corporation (“PIC”), brings safety and security to scheme members’ benefits through innovative, tailored solutions. These include pension insurance buyout or buy-in and longevity risk management. It has transacted both the UK’s largest and the first public sector backed pension insurance buyouts. Other clients include FTSE 100 companies and several multinationals. PIC is proud to work with pension fund trustees to maximise member benefits. For further information please visit www.pensioncorporation.com.