The document discusses different approaches to encouraging retirement saving in the UK, specifically whether traditional tax incentives or framing retirement saving options through default options is better. It provides background on pensions, defining defined benefit and defined contribution plans. It also outlines issues facing pension provision like aging populations and low private saving rates. Current trends in the UK show rising pension deficits and controversy over reforms to public pensions.

1. In order to encourage retirement saving in
Britain: should we place more emphasis
on traditional tax incentives, or on how we
‘frame’ retirement saving opportunities,
such as the specification of ‘default
options’ in levels of saving?

2. What is a pension?
•A regular payment made to a person during their years of
retirement
•Pensions allow an individual to smooth consumption across
their life-time, sacrificing consumption in working life for
consumption in retirement years

3. Retirement Saving
• Pensions are an insurance against an uncertain length of life.
• The insurer guarantees a regular payment to the individual until death.
• In return for a contribution (or tax payment), the insurer is taking over
the longevity risk i.e. risk pooling
• A risk averse person would save too much.
• A myopic person would not save enough and regret it later.
• Pension programmes may also have other insurance features (e.g.
insurance against loss of earnings due to retirement through disability)

4. •The two main types of pension are Defined
Benefit (DB) and Defined Contribution (DC)
•The Guardian defines the two as follows:
D e f in e d B e n e f it D e f in e d c o n t r ib u t io n
Also known as a final salary scheme. The Also known as a money purchase scheme.
amount of income an employee receives The level of contributions made by the
on retirement is defined - or decided - in employer (and, frequently, the employee)
advance, based on the number of years he are set, but the amount of income received
or she has worked for an employer and the on retirement is not.
level of their salary when they retire. The contributions are usually set as a
percentage of salary.
A defined contribution pension scheme is
set up by the employer, and he or she
must contribute to the scheme.

5. Private Pensions
• Defined Contribution:
• An individual has a contract with a provider (insurance company, a
corporate pension plan etc.)
• He or she (and perhaps their employer) contribute to the pension plan.
• The contributions accumulate in a pension fund.
• At the date of retirement, the pension fund is converted into an annuity.
The annuity is paid until death.
• Working out the annuity rate is what actuaries do.

6. Private Pensions
• Defined Benefit:
• Employers offer a plan which spreads the incidence of risk
• This offers a target pension benefit at a given age, linked to years of
service and a measure of salary
• Pre-commits pension fund to a certain pension level on retirement, and,
so doing, shifts some investment risk from the individual to employees in
general (by e.g. varying contribution rates)
• Annuity value doesn’t simply depend on the individual’s fund performance
• Employers may do this to attract better quality workers, or to retain
workers and thereby avoid turnover costs • Different employers offer DB and DC plans. Some
do not offer any plan.
• DB plans are common in public sector
• Many private sector employers are phasing out DB
plans in favour of DC plans
• In UK terminology, employer-provided pensions
are called occupational pensions
• Pensions bought by individuals from insurers are
called personal pensions.

7. Public Pensions
• Governments also offer near-universal pension programmes, which are
not just for public sector employees.
• The programmes are typically of the defined benefit type
• They can pool risks across individuals within generations, and also
between generations
• In the ‘Bismarck’ system (e.g. continental Europe) programmes offer
comprehensive earnings replacement - little private pension coverage)
• In the Beveridge/Anglo Saxon system, social security is a floor (minimum
income), with either compulsory or mandatory private provision on top.
This is called the ‘multipillar’ system
• Typically, social security is largely unfunded or ‘Pay as you go’ (PAYG) i.e.
no fund is accumulated and current contributions pay for current
pensioners.

8. Public Pensions
• Redistribution to the poorest
• Myopia (people don’t save enough)
– but who defines ‘enough’ ? + presence of social security distorts saving
decisions
• Market failure
– private insurers cannot ‘risk rate’ efficiently
– people alter their behaviour after signing the contract
• Administrative costs
– private-for-profit may be more expensive
– economies of scale in administration

9. The current issues facing pension
provision
• Ageing population
• Low rates of private saving
• The mis-selling of personal pensions in the
late 1980s has created low confidence
• More recently, a collapse of a large number
of company final salary pension schemes
Data shows that there is a danger
that people will face inadequate
pensions without high value
assets or a later retirement age

10. Problems
• People are living longer
– and longevity improvements have often been underestimated by official
actuaries
• People have been retiring earlier
– wealth effects in private schemes, political decisions in social security
• Fertility rates are low, in most OECD countries below ‘replacement’.
• In social security programmes, political limits on raising taxes, institutional
limits on raising debt
– e.g. EU Stability Pact

11. Problems
• With largely public provision (‘Bismarck system’), future taxpayers may
not pick up the bill
• Therefore pension generosity will have to be cut sharply, or people retire
later
• With multi-pillar systems, less ‘policy risk’ for publicly-provided segment,
but exposed to ‘investment risk’
• Might ageing affect capital markets (more dissavers, fewer savers, so
asset prices fall?)
• Are there feasible reform strategies and/or can markets adjust (e.g.
incentives to retire later)?

15. Current Trends in UK pensions
• One article (BBC ) showed that despite fluctuations in private
sector pensions, the deficit of £271bn recorded at the end of
December illustrated that the cost of pension provision has
risen significantly in recent years
• Other evidence suggests that the prospects for public sector
pensions are also dismal. Strikes were held in November 2011
over government plans to reform public pensions which
included increasing the retirement age and increasing worker
contributions
• Consequently, it appears that pension provision is a very
controversial issue concerning the UK today.
• This presentation aims to discuss these problems in more
detail and examine the optimal methods for providing
retirement pensions in the UK

16. Traditional Tax Incentives
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17. Other Opportunities

18. “Granny Tax”
• The change in age-related personal allowances - the amount of income that
is tax-free - will save the government £360m in 2013-14, rising to £1.25bn a
year by 2016-17.
• If you are aged 65 to 74, then you get a bit more of an allowance. The first
£10,500 is tax-free from April.
• Most significantly, those who hit 65 just after April 2013 will not get the tax-
free allowance they might have expected.
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) says this will bring an extra 230,000 into
the income tax system. For many, this will mean having to fill out a self-
assessment tax form every year.
• Figures from HMRC show that, taking inflation into account, this will leave
4.41 million people worse off than they would have expected, by an average
of £83 a year in 2013-14.