The government is committed to introducing a new savings account for people on lower incomes. This will provide a strong incentive for eligible individuals to save, or at least to hold financial assets, in these accounts. This paper describes possible rationales for this government intervention....

Unlike many tax and benefit changes, reforms to public pension programmes take many years to have their full effect. This paper examines the effect of reforms to the public pension programme in the United Kingdom on the state retirement incomes of current generations of pensioners and on the...

In 1997, the Labour Party was elected in the UK with few explicitly articulated ideas about social security reforms. This paper reviews the large number of subsequent reforms to social security, and argues that some consistent themes have emerged. A commitment to keep to the tight spending plans...

This paper surveys the issue of public spending on pensions. Drawing on evidence from systems around the world, but particularly in Britain, we outline the arguments for different types of public and private provision of pension income and consider how far they go towards meeting the objectives...

The UK government is planning to introduce stakeholder pensions from April 2001 as an alternative to existing personal pensions for people on moderate earnings. But stakeholder pensions are only one way to save for retirement; the new tax-free Individual Savings Account (ISA) is another. This...