During a recent parliamentary question session, the Conservative Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Philip Hammond requested Gordon Brown to leave the working papers relating to the impact of people taking an alternatively secured pension in the House of Commons library.
This was refused, as it would be inappropriate leave papers that were an important part of the policy making. The figures quoted were the same as given in the pre-budget report for pension simplification of £25million for 2006/2007 increasing to £250million in 2010 – 2011.
Our view
If alternatively secured pensions rules were left as they are, it would encourage people to save, as they would have flexibility on how they spend their pension pot how their family inherit.