Tony Blair Institute proposals for state pension intrusive and deeply troubling – Steve Webb

Responding to today's publication by the Tony Blair Institute of proposals for radical state pension reform, LCP Partner Steve Webb said:

The idea of linking state pension payments to individual health records and individual life expectancy is deeply troubling. Leaving aside issues of confidentiality and data quality, it is very hard to make a precise leap from health records to life expectancy. The report says that they would not want to pay higher pensions to those who had poorer health because of lifestyle choices such as smoking, but it is very hard to see how they would exclude the impact of smoking on someone's overall health.

Where people dispute their proposed state pension rate, the report suggests there could be an appeals process, which could be an administrative nightmare. We have just created a new state pension system which is relatively simple and standardised, and which forms a firm basis for retirement planning. It would be a huge backward step to replace it with something fiendishly complex and highly intrusive, and which would take many decades to implement in full.