2006
PA's response to the Pensions White Paper published 25 May 2006
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25 May 2006
Commenting on the Pensions White Paper published today, Richard McManus of PA Consulting Group felt that there were two important points that had been neglected in the debate on NPSS, as follows:
The cost of NPSS
On the cost of NPSS, Richard McManus commented:
"NPSS can be done more cheaply than the Government's 0.3-0.5% target. Just look at ATP in Denmark - it runs the Danish supplementary state pension scheme for a charge of 0.1%. If the Government is to keep charges low, it must specify only what is necessary in its pension product."
Creating demand for NPSS
On the need to create demand for NPSS, Richard McManus added:
"Government needs to recognise that auto-enrolment will not be sufficient to build demand for the NPSS product among the 10 million target customers. So far there has been insufficient thought given to creating demand for NPSS. As more people opt for self-employment they will fall outside the net and many of those within it will opt out unless they buy the rationale and need for a supplementary pension.
"It is laudable to aspire to greater levels of self reliance but it is far from easy to engineer this! The Government must craft the NPSS on basis of an understanding of the lives of people who have little disposable income, are unaware of the product or their need for it, and who live life in the real world of 'consume today and worry about tomorrow tomorrow'."
For more information, please contact:
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| Heather Smith |
| 123 Buckingham Palace Road |
| London |
| SW1W 9SR |
| United Kingdom |
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Tel: +44 20 7312 4975 |
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Fax: +44 20 7312 4639 |
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E-mail:
heather.smith@paconsulting.com |
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Notes to editors
PA Consulting Group
PA Consulting Group is a leading management, systems and technology consulting firm. Operating worldwide in more than 35 countries, PA draws on the knowledge and experience of 3,000 people, whose skills extend from the initial generation of ideas, insights, solutions and new technology, all the way through to detailed implementation.
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