Stakeholder scheme an ‘extraordinary flop’, Tories claim

Less
than 1 per cent of the 5m people the Government hoped would sign up to
stakeholder pensions have done so, claims the Conservative Party.

Of
the 416,000 stakeholder pensions sold, only 34,000 went to the target group of
people earning between £10,000 and £20,000 a year who were not in existing
pension schemes, according to David Willetts, the Shadow Work and Pensions
Secretary.

"The
Government is failing to deliver on stakeholder pensions," said Willetts,
calling the policy an "extraordinary flop".

Stakeholder
pensions, introduced in April, are designed to encourage the lower paid to save
more for retirement.

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Companies
with five or more employees were obliged to offer the new pensions to staff.
Tens of thousands of employers could face fines for failing to meet last
month’s deadline for doing so, according to the Financial Times.

By Paul Nelson