Pensions are complicated. Everybody would agree with that. If they were simple I would be out of a job. However over the last 5 years that has started to change. Recently they got a whole lot simpler. Hopefully now the General Election is over these revolutionary changes will now stick around for at least another 5 years. However Super Steve Webb, one of the architects of pension freedoms, was always going to lose his job.
A Short History of Pensions Ministers
May 1997
Harriet Harman: Secretary of State for Social Security
Frank Field: Minister of State for Welfare Reform
July 1998
Alastair Darling: Secretary of State for Social Security
John Denham: Minister for Pensions
January 1999
Alastair Darling: Secretary of State for Social Security
Stephen Timms: Minister for Pensions
July 1999
Alastair Darling: Secretary of State for Social Security
Jeff Rooker: Pensions Minister
May 2001
Alastair Darling: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Ian McCartney: Pensions Minister
May 2002
Andrew Smith: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Ian McCartney: Pensions Minister
June 2003
Andrew Smith: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Malcolm Wicks: Pensions Minister
September 2004
Alan Johnson: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Malcolm Wicks: Pensions Minister
May 2005
David Blunkett: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Stephen Timms: Pensions Minister
November 2005
John Hutton: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Stephen Timms: Minister for Pensions Reform
May 2006
John Hutton: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
James Purnell: Minister for Pensions Reform
June 2007
Peter Hain: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Mike O’Brien: Minister for Pensions Reform
January 2008
James Purnell Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Mike O’Brien Minister for Pensions Reform
October 2008
James Purnell: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Rosie Winterton: Minister for Pensions Reform
June 2009
Yvette Cooper: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Angela Eagle: Minister for Pensions Reform
May 2010 to Today
Iain Duncan Smith: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Steve Webb: Minister for Pensions
Who want’s to be a pensions minister, I don’t
The job as pensions minister was created by Labour in 1998. It falls within the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions team. Nobody wanted it. It just wasn’t sexy. It was long term, but it was manned by journeymen (and latterly journeywomen, “we better promote some of those”). You got the job if you were up and coming. A first ministerial post on your political ladder to greatness. Or you got the job as you fell from grace. A sort of stepping stone to being put to pasture quietly. Cabinet reshuffle after reshuffle, the team changed. Pensions legislation continued to stagnate because Labour insisted on means-tested benefits. There was no incentive to save, and it would take for ever to get fair value back out of the decades of saving into pensions.
From 1997 to 2010 Labour had 15 different pension teams.
I defy anyone, no matter how brilliant, to understand pension legislation in such a short time frame. It’s no wonder decisions made to simplify pensions, just made them more complicated. Good news for advisers like me, bad news for pensions savers.
From 2010 to 2015 The Coalition had just the one team.
The rise and fall of Pensions Super Steve
Narrator: As an outsider, it looked like a mistake from the get-go. The Conservatives needed to share some ministerial posts.
Mr Cameron: How about Minister for Pensions to the Lib Dems, nobody wants it anyway. All agreed? Good. Don’t care who it is.
enter Steve Webb stage right to utter silence
Narrator: I have to say Steve Webb, the Lib Dem who got the post as minister, has done an outstanding job for a whole generation of us savers. He has overseen a wholesale restructuring of pensions. The new pension freedoms have and will continue to change peoples lives for the better.
Mr Cameron: Well done Steve. Your pension reforms have probably helped to clinch the General Election for us. Your job is safe.
Mr Webb: There is no coalition anymore and I lost my seat as an MP.
Mr Cameron: Saves firing you then. Goodbye. I’m off to see The Queen.
exit Steve Webb stage left to utter silence