Ros Altmann has been appointed pensions minister under the new Conservative government.
Altmann, who is a former director-general of Saga and an independent expert on later life issues, will be tasked with overseeing pensions policy, the state pension, automatic-enrolment, The Pensions Regulator, and a host of other responsibilities at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Prior to the general election, Altmann was offered a newly created role of minister for financial consumer protection, where she would also be nominated for a peerage.
Former pensions minister Steve Webb lost his seat in the general election on 7 May.
Altmann has also served as the government’s Older Workers Business Champion since July 2014.
Altmann’s appointment has been welcomed by the pensions industry.
Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, said: “We are looking forward to working with Dr Altmann. We want to share our expertise to negotiate the tough challenges that lie ahead, some of which may require difficult decisions.
“We encourage the Minister to consider the benefits an independent commission would offer. By providing impartial and independent expertise and analysis a commission would allow the Minister to make policy that stands the test of time.”
David Fairs, chairman of the Association of Consulting Actuaries, added: “[Altmann] is well attuned to both the private pensions market and the aspirations of the public in terms of pension outcomes and delivery of service.
“We look forward to working with her in the months ahead in this challenging role where many reforms remain to be finalised.”
The government confimed that Iain Duncan Smith will continue as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
We welcome the appointment of Ros Altmann. Her selection demonstrates that helping individuals plan for their retirement remains a key focus of the government. It’s great to see such a respected industry figure appointed to this role at such a pivotal point for the pensions industry.
Right now we need to strike the balance between continued legislation to ensure that the market is competitive, innovative, and working in the best interests of the consumer, whilst not overloading employers with further cost and complexities when they really want some space to focus on their core business.
Something that would certainly help to bed-in recent change and ease the path to future development would be a single regulator working more closely with government. This could include, a more joined and simplistic approach to the pension regime for companies and individuals from the government down.
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