Nigel Stanley's Archive

Nigel Stanley

I’m the TUC’s Head of Campaigns and Communications, and have been working at the TUC since 1994. I manage campaigning, media relations, parliamentary lobbying, publications and event organisation. As I work in communications and public affairs, my blogging is likely to range widely, but superficially.

If I have a specialist subject, it’s pensions. I have led a lot of the TUC’s work on implementing the Pensions Commission proposals. I have been a Trustee Member of the Nest Corporation.

In the past, I’ve freelanced in public affairs, research and journalism, including with the European Commission, Labour Party and a number of MPs. I did research, press and campaign management at the House of Commons in the 80’s and early 90’s, first for Robin Cook and then for Bryan Gould. Before that I was Organising Secretary of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee from its launch in 1978. I play ska/jazz bass guitar with the Skamonics and have part-ownership of a canal boat.

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Politics
Polling on cuts

23rd April 2012 — Filed under: Politics

Nigel Stanley

Every so often I look at the state of public opinion on the cuts using YouGov data as they regularly poll with the same questions and publish the results.

In summary the gradual shift in public opinion back towards the goverment has gone into reverse, and they appear to have lost the slight – though probably significant – gains they had made. The budget has had a big impact on voting intention figures – this appears to be reflected in the attitude questions that I’ve been tracking.

Whether that’s a permanent shift or a sustained blip, we cannot yet know. My guess would be somewhere between the two -opinion may flow back towards the government in some areas, but there has been a permanent shift for some people. The most recent poll in this series was on April 1st. The government has continued to have poor headlines since then.

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Pensions & Investment
Raising the state pension age to 70+

23rd April 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

I have a piece on the New Statesman blog where I say this is unfair.

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Pensions & Investment
Pensioners hit by tax changes, while super-rich let off

21st March 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment, Society & Welfare

Nigel Stanley

All those who have said that pensioners are immune from austerity measures because they vote have been proved wrong today.

In the name of tax simplification, pensioners will be paying £1.25 billion extra in income tax a year by 2016 (p180 of the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook).

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Pensions & Investment
Good pensions policy from Lib Dem Spring conference

15th March 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

All media attention (and I admit mine) were on the NHS debate at last weekend’s Liberal Democrat spring conference. But they also adopted a rather good resolution on pensions, moved by Janice Turner – a leading light in the Association of Member Nominated Trustees and a trustee of a union pension scheme.

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Pensions & Investment
DWP Select Committee says lift restrictions on NEST now

15th March 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

There is excellent news in the report from the DWP Select Committee today on pensions. They say the government should lift the restrictions on NEST that ban transfers and impose an upper limit on how much anyone can contribute each year. No other pension scheme suffers from such restrictions, and the report shows all party support for the position long argued by the TUC, and our consumer group allies, that they were unfair.

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Pensions & Investment
Freeze the auto-enrolment thresholds to keep women in pensions

8th February 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment
Nigel Stanley

The coalition government’s review of pensions auto-enrolment made two major changes to how pensions auto-enrolment will work from the worker point of view.
- There will be a three month wating period after someone starts a job before their employer has to auto-enrol them into a pension.
- Instead of being auto-enrolled as soon as someone’s pay exceeds the bottom of the earnings band on which contributions have to be paid (£5,564), a new auto-enrolment trigger was introduced. This was set at the level at which people start paying income tax (£7,745). In other words as soon as your pay exceeds £7,745 you are auto-enrolled in a pension, and you and your employer both have to pay contributions on your earnings in excess of £5,564.
The government’s consultation on uprating these thresholds has just closed. Our big concern is that the government keeps the link for the auto-enrolment trigger to the personal income tax allowance as the coalition agreement, on Lib Dem urging, says that this should rise to £10,000 a year.

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Pensions & Investment
The IFS are feeding the public sector pension trolls

31st January 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

I have a piece on Left Foot Forward on today’s IFS report on public sector pensions, predictably misrepresented by much of the media.

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Pensions & Investment
Thirteen long years for Pensions Commission report to be made reality

25th January 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

Pensions Minister Steve Webb has just announced the new detailed timetable for pensions auto-enrolment. This provides the small print for the delay announced in the Autumn Statement following lobbying by the small business lobby and the Beecroft review.

My strong impression is that this delay was forced on the DWP, and could even be seen as a victory over a strong push for the permanent exemption of small firms from pensions auto-enrolment. But it is still bad news.

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Pensions & Investment
Does uprating by prices lead to better results than uprating by wages?

19th January 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

In my earlier post on public sector pensions I asserted that indexing by earnings produces better results than indexing by prices. In the comments Luke Snell queried whether this was still true. He asked whether “this assertion is valid given trends over the past 10-15 years?”.

Good question I thought. So I’ve knocked up a very quick spreadsheet that worked out whether you would be better off with a pension (or anything else for that matter) uprated by earnings, RPI inflation or CPI inflation.

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Pensions & Investment
Why pensions auto-enrolment should not hold back the minimum wage

17th January 2012 — Filed under: Pensions & Investment

Nigel Stanley

Business organisations are arguing that the introduction of pensions auto-enrolment later this year is an argument for holding down the minimum wage. At first sight they might have a point.

Pensions auto-enrolment for the first time will force employers to contribute to the pensions of their staff. This is absolutely right, but unlike some employer complaints it is undoubtedly a burden on business as pensions contributions have a price tag. No doubt for staff higher up the income scale employers will attempt to recoup some of the costs from their wages, but as you cannot cut the minimum wage this is harder for those who on the legal minimum (though there may be some pressure on hours).

But closer examination of the figures suggests that the cost of auto-enrolment, particularly for the next few years, will be tiny for minimum wage workers.

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Nigel Stanley's Archive

Nigel Stanley

Polling on cuts

Raising the state pension age to 70+

Pensioners hit by tax changes, while super-rich let off

Good pensions policy from Lib Dem Spring conference

DWP Select Committee says lift restrictions on NEST now

Freeze the auto-enrolment thresholds to keep women in pensions

The IFS are feeding the public sector pension trolls

Thirteen long years for Pensions Commission report to be made reality

Does uprating by prices lead to better results than uprating by wages?

Why pensions auto-enrolment should not hold back the minimum wage

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