‘Millions to benefit’ from proposed pension reforms

Millions of people stand to benefit from proposed reforms to workplace pensions, Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain has told MPs.

The new Pensions Bill 2007, introduced to Parliament last week, would aim to give employees aged over 22 and earning more than £5,000 year, access to a good workplace pension from 2012. If the Bill is passed, a minimum employer contribution would be mandatory.

The Government predicts that between six and nine million people would be saving in a workplace pension for the first time or saving more as a result of the changes, increasing the overall annual pension contribution to an estimated £10bn by 2015.

Meanwhile, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has welcomed the Government’s publication of the Bill, describing it as a ‘milestone on the road to a new pensions settlement’.

TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: ‘The Government deserves praise for sticking to the agenda set by the Pensions Commission report, and building a wide consensus around a pensions settlement that would have been seen as too radical by far only five years ago.’

The Bill is expected to be committed to a Public Bill Committee for consideration after a Second Reading.