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Helen Nadin

Helen Nadin

Helen is TUC policy officer for pensions and is responsible for policy on private occupational, personal and state pensions, including public service pensions.
Helen joined the TUC in 2007, after working for the NSPCC.

Web: http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk
  • Pensions & Investment

    Pension schemes continue on the slippery slope of decline?

    22nd April 2013 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    Another study has indicated why the changes the European Commission envisages would be bad news for UK defined benefit pension schemes. This time it was the preliminary results of the Qualitative Impact Assessment, recently published by EIOPA (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) for the EC which showed the impact of proposed changes to the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provisions Directive.

    The study estimated that UK defined benefit (DB) schemes would have to put £450billion into schemes to maintain scheme funding levels. This could result in increases in members’ pension contributions or cuts in scheme benefits, or worse still scheme closures to new members, or closures to future accruals. It will also have wider economic implications for businesses as they will have to divert money into their schemes rather than invest in company growth, job creation and R+D.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Coalition calls for the lifting of the restrictions on NEST

    28th January 2013 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    In response to a DWP call for evidence the TUC, Age UK, Which?, EEF The Manufacturers’ Organisation, the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chambers of Commerce have written to the Pensions Minister Steve Webb MP calling for immediate lifting of the annual contribution limit and restrictions on transfers in and out of NEST.

    NEST was established as a low-cost pension scheme for low- to middle-income earners, with a public service obligation, as the commercial pensions industry was not providing for this market, or not an affordable cost. All the organisations agree that NEST has achieved its aim of serving its target audience and that it is therefore time to lift the restrictions placed on NEST.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Uprating of the 2013 Basic State Pension not quite as good as it looks?

    5th December 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    In the June 2010 Budget the Chancellor announced that the Basic State Pension (BSP) would be increased by the higher of CPI, earnings or 2.5%, known as the “triple lock”. While the TUC welcomed this announcement, we believe the change was over-stated by the government and would result in lower increases in the BSP than would arise from using RPI as the measure of inflation. Today’s announcement confirms that this has been the case.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    QE and pension schemes

    15th February 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    The Bank of England’s decision to extend quantitative easing by £50 billion (taking the total value of the QE programme to £325 billion) is welcome, providing further stimulus to our stagnating economy. Particularly in the absence of any significant Government stimulus measures, using monetary policy to prevent a second credit crunch and keep long-term borrowing costs low, therefore boosting activity in the rest of the economy, is currently one of the most significant interventions available to support us back to growth.

    But QE is far from perfect as a means to support the recovery, with increasing evidence that bank lending remains depressed despite the additional balance sheet boost that QE is providing.  This has led many, including Monetary Policy Member Dr Adam Posen, to call for a new type of QE to be developed, which would involve the Bank of England providing direct support to small and medium sized businesses, rather than, as is currently the case, buying Government bonds directly from banks and large financial institutions. And, with no economists entirely sure what the effects of the intervention are, there is also increasing evidence that while QE has boosted confidence and growth it may in the process have pushed up inflation (by boosting demand for assets which would not otherwise have been so highly priced) which would affect those who are already the poorest the most.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Pension schemes face increased solvency stakes

    24th January 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    In October the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published the consultation ‘Response to Call for Advice on the review of Directive 2003/41/EC: second consultation’. The consultation covered EIOPA’s draft advice to the European Commission on the review of the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP – Directive 2003/41/EC). The Directive applies to occupational pension schemes, which unlike insurance-based pension schemes do so on a not-for-profit basis.

    EIOPA will give their final advice to the Commission in mid-February on the reform of the IORP Directive, with a view to publishing a draft Directive later in the year. While this may sound very technical, the outcome of the consultation could be pivotal – and extremely adverse –for UK defined benefit (DB) pension schemes and the wider European Union economy. It is an issue that significantly concerns the TUC.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    The increase in State Pension Age to 66: Are the Government’s transitional arrangements really such a concession?

    14th October 2011 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    The Government tabled an amendment to the Pensions Bill yesterday to be debated next week which will cap the maximum increase in women’s State Pension Age (SPA) to 66 at 18 months. While an admission by the Government that it got its plans wrong as the original plan would have seen some women’s SPA rise by two years, their changed plans are short shrift given the short notice hundreds of thousands of men and women have had for the increase in SPA.

    The Government’s amendment means that the 33,000 women who would have worked two years longer than they expected to receive their Basic State Pension will no longer have to do so. However there will still be many thousands of women who will work up to 18 months longer than they originally expected to receive their Basic State Pension. In making this change to women’s SPA the Government has broken the Coalition Agreement.

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Government to reinvigorate occupational pensions?

    13th September 2011 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    Steve Webb indicated last week that the Government is going to examine risk-sharing. Risk-sharing is the shorthand for the pensions landscape between defined benefit and defined contribution schemes, where risk can be shared between employers and members, or between members, and it can exist in a range of forms, many of which are already possible and in existence in the UK.

    He said

    “once we’ve gone from the DB extreme where the employer shoulders all the risk, to the DC extreme where it’s all borne by the member, hopefully we can push it back a little bit.”

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  • Pensions & Investment

    Employees see a further drop in their pensions

    2nd August 2011 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

    Helen Nadin Helen Nadin

    Lane, Clark and Peacock’s 18th annual survey released today has some interesting – but dispiriting – findings on the pension schemes run for employees of FTSE 100 companies.

    Two key findings are the growing shift to defined contribution provision, and the change from RPI to CPI to uprate private sector schemes. The latter has resulted in a significant shift in the value of pension liabilities. The aggregate FTSE 100 pension deficit now stands at £19bn, down from £51bn on the previous year. But, as LCP recognises, this is at the expense of scheme members. If CPI were to average 0.75% per year less than RPI, a pensioner retiring at age 60 on 10,000 per year would see their benefit eroded by nearly 1,200 per year in today’s terms by the time they reach age 75.

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