The government has an opportunity to deliver a fair, sustainable pensions system, but the white paper risks perpetuating a century-old cycle of complex and muddled reforms, argues Dr Hugh Pemberton, co-editor of a new book being launched today and Lecturer in Modern British History at Bristol University.

Sixty years after the National Insurance Act laid the foundations for Britain’s state pension system, the Government is proposing reforms it claims will be “the biggest renewal of our pension system since the Beveridge reforms.”

This claim is challenged in Britain’s pensions crisis: history and policy, being launched today [Wednesday, 18 October] at an event organised by the British Academy and History & Policy.  A panel debate at Portcullis House will bring together historians, policymakers and other experts to discuss: Does the pensions white paper repeat the mistakes of the past?

Speakers will include: Nick Timmins, Financial Times (Chair), James Purnell MP, Minister for Pensions Reform, Nigel Waterson MP, Shadow Pensions Minister, Professor John Hills FBA, LSE and former Pensions Commissioner, Professor Pat Thane FBA, pensions historian, University of London and Dr Ros Altmann, independent pensions expert.

The editors of the book, three leading pensions historians, welcome some of the government’s proposals, but criticise the failure to unravel what they describe as the “complex, ramshackle apparatus of the system built up over the past half-century”. 

They conclude that, “the white paper offers a hall of mirrors, giving an illusion of improvement that does not stand up to close examination and is highly unlikely to be sustained.”

Other contributors include Frank Field MP, Professor John Hills, Baroness Hollis and leading academics from the UK, Europe and the US.

Dr Hugh Pemberton, co-editor and Lecturer in Modern British History, University of Bristol, said: “The Turner Reports have done future generations a service, creating a consensus that there is a pensions crisis and forcing the government to produce proposals to solve it. The pensions white paper proposes several reforms that I applaud, including the restoration of the earnings link, raising the pension age and recognising the need for a National Pensions Savings Scheme. 

“But these are all incremental changes to the existing system.  In no sense is this a ‘revolution’ or ‘another Beveridge’.”

Professor Pat Thane FBA, co-editor and Director of the Centre for Contemporary British History at the University of London, said: "Twentieth-century governments missed opportunities to deliver lasting pensions reform about once every decade and today’s messy, iniquitous pensions system is a product of these successive policy failures.  The current government faces a huge challenge if it is to buck this trend and create a system fit for the twenty-first century.

“The White Paper currently on offer will not deliver a universal state pension that is enough to live on.  In particular, the ‘something for something’ approach the government claims to espouse still does not go far enough to give women a fair deal.  The White Paper is a glimmer on the horizon, but not the new dawn we were promised.”

Noel Whiteside, co-editor and Professor of comparative public policy at the University of Warwick said:“The white paper takes a small but insignificant step in the right direction.  Sadly, the government has let slip the opportunity to follow the Turner report, to overhaul our complicated system and secure real reform.  In other countries, notably Sweden, old systems have been modernised and public trust restored.  Why good practice elsewhere is not given more serious attention is beyond comprehension.”

Britain’s pensions crisis: history and policy, edited by Hugh Pemberton, Pat Thane and Noel Whiteside, is published by Oxford University Press for the British Academy (£14.99).