Age Shall Wither

An article in "The Spectator" by Jeff Prestridge, the Personal Finance Editor of "The Mail On Sunday" is a confession on his part for his lack of pension planning personally, and a simple article setting out the mess that private pensions are today.

We no longer have the systems we once had and they have not been replaced by anything sensible, coherent or able to fund all those people wanting to retire. What will happen is in the future, what may happen is that suddenly instead of the elderly retiring at predictable ages a great many will have to soldier on.

The blame is fairly laid at the door of the Treasury and by default the many and various politicians dipping into pensions policy for money for other reasons.  This is an impending disaster. The wealthy are able to make deals, often off shore, that will keep them in yachts.

One interesting feature is that for the mandarins etc. at the head of the Civil Service and at the Treasury they are on what we call "gold plated", inflation proofed and generous schemes which are to be envied.

They are public sector, in theory funded in some cases but in all cases relying on the taxpayer one way or another. They are rivalled only by those for the politicians who instruct them. In the last two decades this has been very convenient, or rather too convenient, it has been like grandmother's purse, ever open for special pleading.

At the moment to some extent in certain parts of the country the problem is shrouded by the long running property boom. If that ends at the same time as the pensions crisis begins to kick in the government of the day will be in trouble.

They will be in the position of enforcing policies and taxes etc. with "no right decisions" and ones which will very unpopular with the majority of the electorate.