• SelCom ~ TPR & TPO Update; An Invitation to provide Written and Oral evidence to Inquiry;

• The  Industry ‘Presidents’~The PMI ~ The SPP~  more pension ‘industry’ self serving organisations;

In an ‘industry’ where it never rains or sprinkles, it pours in ‘stair rods’ the Parliamentary Work and Pensions Select Committee (SelCom) has this week announced an Inquiry into proposals within the government’s White Paper on defined benefit (DB) schemes which of course includes the Fire Service Pensions Schemes.

The Inquiry, which will seek to inform and influence various consultations throughout the year, is initially seeking evidence on the powers, effectiveness, and culture of The Pensions Regulator (TPR) and how its corporate ‘clearance’ regime can be strengthened(Speak for wakening up and working for a living).

Naturally the Bugler has already supplied its views/evidence to SelCom of the Fire Service DB Schemes and their parlous state which TPR have failed to take the slightest action on.

SelCom is also asking whether the proposal for a new criminal offence, where company directors(Scheme managers or delegates) wilfully or recklessly put a DB scheme at risk, will act as a “meaningful deterrent”, and how TPR should define its expectations of the words ‘prudent’ and ‘appropriate or ‘recklessly’?

Once more the Bugler has its evidential experiences with the LFRS to call on and forward, and has done so.

SelCom is accepting written commentary from interested parties until 18^th  May 2018, and will then likely hold oral evidence sessions before feeding back to the DWP.

Oral sessions are bad news for TPR, and in time, for TPO because its leaders will have to give a public accounting of the organisation they are responsible to Parliament for.

The Morning Bugler has also flagged up the miscreants by name  and  appointment, these  criminal civil servants, SelCom ought also to invite for oral questioning in the glare of the Public’s cameras.

Whilst SelCom’s scrutiny is unlikely to cause the DWP any great discomfort it will publicly highlight the growing implied  and actual concerns and criticisms of both TPR and TPO, based on supplied examples of obstructed Complaints, as failed organisations and confirm the Committee’s growing suspicions of their obvious corporate failures and shortcomings including  misuse of resources, working culture, and unethical, if not unlawful, activities.

Of course both TPR and TPO will excuse their inadequacies by informing the pension world that they have already started implementing a wholesale review of their landscape of incompetence to meet the challenges of the future but given the acerbic mood of SelCom towards Titcomb and her mostly lazy colleagues this is too little too late.

Well how about just doing your job honestly for starters?

It should be a matter of interest for all FS Readers that currently SelCom individual MPs Members are receiving live personal example, after live personal example, of copied correspondence between Complainants and these two organisations who, clearly in complicity at staff level, within   both TPR and TPO are clearly not only failing their Statutory duty but as a consequence providing supporting live evidence of their collective wrong doings.

Evidence which will substantiate the charges levied against both the TPR and the TPO that their civil servant employees are clearly acting partially in favour of their employers, the current government, by ceaselessly obstructing, stonewalling, and deliberately obfuscating by their foot dragging the right of access to ‘due process’ by Complainants, a right which they are entitled to by law.

They know by now, as do the government departments involved, that the case of fraudulent underpayments to disabled FSVs and their Beneficiaries, which have been continuing for over two decades will be publicly exposed when the Opinions at law expressed by eminent Barristers contained in Complaints now placed before TPO when they are carefully examined and found to be correct in law.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on W&P’s Public invitation to submit written and oral evidence to them by 18th May 2018 is an opportunity Dear Reader to express a supporting view on all the criminality that has gone on at every level of pension administration and is now continuing at both TPR and TPO by its civil servants.

This complicit and cohesive obstruction cannot be other than directed but hidden government policy at work?

How can anyone have confidence in a government which propounds the benefits of either having or saving towards a pension if this is how it treats its existing pensioner/investors?

Soon, early next month, the same government will want our Local Government elections vote…make sure… you make it count based on what you have read on the Morning Bugler.

Perhaps we should give the smaller parties a chance?

It is time that this criminality is stopped and those so engaged are all publicly called to account and this is an opportunity to do so presented by a vigilant and an increasingly  active Select Committee.

If you are minded to support those whom this, and other governments have defrauded, please do so by going to the Morning Bugler supplied contact points for the Chair and Members of SelCom and send them  a brief email of your views.  Go Here.

According to the ‘industry’ press in August last year, the Pensions Management Institute which ‘grants’ the title ‘Fellows’ to their chosen few glad handing elite, including their former King clown the last Pensions Ombudsman, with not a qualification to his name other than the title, civil servant clerk.

The PMI which issues various  ‘degrees’ and ‘qualifications’ which no proper University nor national governmental agency recognises has decided to undertake a  ‘root and branch’ review of its ‘qualifications’.

Well Hooorah!

How about getting their ‘qualifications’ recognised in law by having a requirement for Statutory Examinations which should be demanded already by the Financial Conduct  Authority which is another governmental joke which operates ‘independently’ from government.

Now one wonders where we have all heard that before?

The root cause of much of the terminal illness which afflicts the UK pension ‘industry’ which the Bugler has endlessly reported,  is the fact that many of the Pensions Schemes sold to the mugs, sorry pension holders, of this country through the City of London, which are actually administered by unqualified clerks who daily handle £billions of values of Schemes with the aplomb  which a high wire gymnast would admire and which of course every pension holder is happy to accept at face value and in trust, because surely no government would allow such a state of circumstances to exist?

 Yes, they have and would, and will continue to.

Pensions Management Institute (PMI) will review all of its qualifications as it seeks to adapt its offering to the changing pensions landscape. Indeed it is, but for the worse, and to the disadvantage of pension ‘investors’.

The Institute, which in August 2017 also announced its new president, said it has not reviewed its qualifications enough in the past, and therefore fears these do not reflect the way the industry has moved over the past few years.

It was the Bugler’s understand that the PMI had never ever ‘reviewed’ its ‘qualifications.

In a press interview, new PMI president Robert Branagh said the review would consider what the industry needs in order to cope with the rapidly-changing environment.
“We’re doing a fundamental review,” he said. “We probably haven’t done that enough. We can all probably list five or six different things that have happened in the last few years and ask ‘should there be a qualification or some learning and development to help with that?’.

What a blinding flash of inspiration…

“We are doing a root and branch review of what we currently provide, what the rest of the world is doing, where the market is, and where UK plc is in the context of pensions. Everything on the table is up for review.”.

Indeed what the rest of Europe, never mind the rest of the world, has been doing since WWII which the Allies won by the way, though rightly history is now recording it was actually the sacrifices of the then Soviets at Stalingrad.

In particular, the PMI said it wants to offer better training for master trust professionals, as well as provide more “pop-up” qualifications for employees whose job only relates partly to pension provision.

Well let’s ‘pop-up’ a few extra titles for these wonderfully titled ‘master trust professionals’ for which of course PMI will charge them an extra annual fee .
What a wonderful idea…well Heavens to Murgatroyd… as they are alleged to say at Eaton.

Branagh added: “The world isn’t moving from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC), it’s moving from DB to DC to Master Trust. There is a gap coming for people who work in our industry to have qualifications around AE, around basic building blocks for pensions, because they work for Master Trusts.
What he means is bigger(Money pots) which the ‘industry’ can then dip its sticky fingers into.
“The Master Trust community has such a lot of automation that there is a risk people who administrate Master Trusts don’t understand enough about why they’re doing things as opposed to how they’re doing things. Qualifications, even a basic entry qualification like the Retirement Provision Certificate, to introduce them to where a Master Trust sits in the spectrum of pensions, are a useful building block.”.

The Bugler absolutely agrees…the ‘industry’ have not the foggiest idea what they are doing provided it pays a bountiful salary for no accountability with no qualifications in the Midas Touch ‘counting house’ which does its duty to its shareholders but not its pensioners.

“The PMI also hopes to expand both its regional and international presence as it seeks to improve its reach and accessibility, part of a five-year plan to improve its offering to the sector.”, all for profit of course.

Meanwhile  the Society of  Pension Profesionals(SPP), another self-serving organisation within the ‘industry’, believes that communication with its  scheme members continues to be a challenge and will continue its drive to make itself more accessible and to raise awareness of the benefits of membership.

It believes it can also help the government make its pension reforms workable.

Now there is  ingratiating boot lickers comment if ever there was one.

SPP Outgoing president Hugh Nolan(qualified actuary) and incoming president Paul McGlone(qualified actuary) spoke to the press recently about key ‘industry’ challenges and the future of the SPP.

Not everyone was impressed with the White Paper published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) at the end of March, including the Bugler, but Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) president Hugh Nolan – whose term of office finishes at the end of May – takes a more positive view, even bizarre, than most.

He says: “It was lovely to see the DWP paper talking about the fact that, although we have had some high profile corporate failures, the pensions system has actually worked quite well in those situations – we have the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) providing a backstop to pensions at a pretty decent level, with industry levies funding the benefits of those people who would otherwise miss out.”

In addition, he says the white paper contained positive messages about the number of people still in defined benefit (DB) schemes and the success of Auto-Enrolment.

“Despite the backdrop of some bad news, so many things are coming out of the white paper saying what a success pensions have been and I think this is very positive.

“I would like to think that the SPP in some small way has had a part in that by trying to keep that positive tone up when negative messages have been coming out of some parts of the media and I like to think the positivity that we in the industry have kept going has been reflected in some of the commentary and narrative we see now.”.

One really has to admire gall when one sees it as barefaced as this. Here we have an outgoing SPP president claiming, against the background of the worst series of major failures in UK Pension Schemes entire history when even Parliament and its Select Committee cannot comprehend never mind come to grips with it , claiming that it was all a minor blip and that in the end it all ended up rather nicely with the government  Pension Protection Fund (PPF) bailing everyone out, including his ‘industry’.

What he actually means and knows as an actuary is that it was not the PPF which bailed out this Titanic it was the Taxpayers, you and me, as ever.

Aon partner Paul McGlone, who will become the SPP’s new president on 1st June 2018, played some slightly different tunes.

He believes the biggest challenge facing the industry is how to communicate with the diminishing members of pension schemes who are all marching offshore with their money if they have any sense left.

He says: “We have a continual challenge to make sure people understand, appreciate and value what they have and don’t get misled or misinformed – there is a lot of misinformation and complexity out there, which makes it very difficult for members.”.

What he actually means is that there are more sharks than water, or as the good old Okies in Oklahoma might say about the UK pension ‘industry’  …there are more flies on it in the noon day sun than a dead hog, or flies on a paedophile parson’s trousers…
Gawd Boy, don’t ye jeest love them thar Okies…but terminal the ‘pension’ industry certainly is…

McGlone says this challenge has been compounded by the shift to defined contribution (DC) provision and the emergence of Freedom and Choice. He adds: “People are now faced with a huge number of choices – and they are difficult choices.”

While McGlone accepts the SPP is not going to directly influence member communication – even if some of the organisation’s evening meetings do occasionally cover the topic – he says it can change the opinion of policymakers and, in particular, the media.

“Where there are positive messages, we need to get them out in a clear way,” he says. “People tend to moan about pensions but they do take some lead from what they read so getting positive messages out to the media is really important.”

Pensions reporting in the mainstream media is a topic that is clearly close to the incoming SPP president’s heart (though trade journal titles, such as Professional Pensions ®, seem to be exempt from McGlone’s ire) – McGlone believes the SPP should be “calling out” inaccurate, misleading or mischievous articles.

He says: “You are really not doing individuals any favours by making them think pensions are a bad thing when, in fact, the opposite is true ­- you may have sold yourself some newspapers but have made people worse off as a result.”

Presumably McGlone will now include the Morning Bugler in his ire?

Nolan agrees: “We want to get a balance and make sure that comment is informed. We can’t control what is written in the media but we can make sure the people writing understand the situation and are aware of those positives.”

Yet, despite this, McGlone admits there are difficulties with pensions, especially when it is realised that DB schemes have an average employer contribution rate of 16% compared to around a fifth of that for DC.

He says: “This is the real elephant in the room and it is not getting reported on at the moment.

“The difficulty is the underlying economics of it, which is that if you want to retire on a decent pension and at a decent age, then it costs an awful lot of money – and there are only so many levers you can pull. You either retire on less, retire later or you pay more, and none of those are good news stories.”

He adds: “Pensions are going to be in for a bit of a drumming in that sense as there is always going to be a story about ‘isn’t life terrible’.”

Now at the very end Mr.McGlone got it perfectly correct. The ‘drumming’ and indeed the drubbing commenced several years ago. Where has he been?

As Smith said, one has to maintain one’s sang froid, stiff upper lip, and sense of humour as he predicted the sinking of the Titanic several hours earlier…