The TUC has told the Pensions Commission that compulsory savings must be part of any solution to the growing pensions crisis.
The TUC says people need to save 15% of their income to provide a decent pension and in a new compulsory system employers should provide 10% and employees 5%.
In their submission to the Pensions Commission, released today, the TUC calls for a new compulsory savings regime to be run by a body modelled on the Low Pay Commission and involving unions, employer representatives and independent experts.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “When we first proposed compulsion, most commentators said that we had little hope of making headway.
“Yet the tide is turning in our direction, and the Turner Commission’s first report made clear that it would be hard to solve the pensions problem without compulsion.
“Companies that provide good pensions are asking why they should be undercut by those who don’t.
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“And those who oppose compulsion have failed to find any convincing alternative other than ‘work til you drop’ higher retirement ages to make up for the obvious failure of voluntarism.”
