National Pensions Debate

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Method(s) Used

Citizens' Summits (Methods)
Online Forums (Methods)

Name of person who posted the project:

Karin Gavelin (Involve)

Location of project:

United Kingdom

Date when the project started:

2006

Date when the project ended/project ongoing:

2006

Background to project:

The UK population is moving increasingly towards becoming an aging population leading to concern that public provision for the elderly will be unsustainable in the future. As a result, worries about the future of the state pensions system had been developing for some years before an independent Pensions Commission was set up in December 2002 to review the long-term challenges for the system and to develop recommendations for reform.
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In November 2005 the second report of the Pensions Commission, the Turner Report , was published, recommending a radical shake-up of the pensions system. The report criticised those who thought the problem of affording pensions could be "wished away".
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Given the potential effect of the recommendations on the entire UK population, the Turner Report paved the way for a large public consultation of the future of the UK pensions system: The National Pensions Debate. This also built upon existing research into the public's attitude to pensions. This pointed towards a lack of knowledge and understanding on the issue of pensions, as well as a reluctance to plan for retirement.
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Purpose of project:

The National Pensions Debate, which Opinion Leader Research (OLR) was commissioned to run, had the dual aims of raising awareness of the pensions challenges facing society and understanding public views on the Pensions Commission's proposals for reform to the UK pension system.
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Events had to both inform and seek views on policy proposals. Because of the complex and personal nature of pensions for many people, it was decided that a deliberative approach be taken to the public engagement process. A deliberative approach generally takes more time than other, more traditional methods as it allows participants to digest information and come to more informed conclusions. The issues were presented in the form of a series of choices or trade-offs which would be inevitable for the future of UK pensions policy.
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Project activities:

Between 18th February and 28th March 2006, 6529 people contributed to the National Pensions Debate by taking part in an online debate, deliberative public events and devolved events with stakeholder groups. The process concluded with National Pensions Day, a large deliberative consultation event which was the largest to date in the UK. There was substantial media coverage of the process, as well as ministerial presence at the deliberative events.
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At the National Pensions Day and regional events, participants were actively recruited to fulfil a number of demographic and other criteria. This included a focus on traditionally hard-to-reach and seldom-heard groups , as well ensuring that each group reflected the local demographics for each area. Local recruiters were enlisted and recruitment took place on street or via door-to-door contact.
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Each participant received a personalised letter, signed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions prior to their event. Where possible all attendees were called by OLR to encourage attendance and to verify key demographic details.
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On the day, the process consisted of small and demographically mixed table groups each with a facilitator for their discussion about policy, as well as plenary sessions for information giving and voting. The information giving included video briefings from Adair Turner and interactive quizzes. Parts of the Turner Report proposals were explained in turn, then debated and voted upon, with results being available immediately.
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Ministers and members of the Pensions Commission were also present at each event to listen and to conclude proceedings. The satellite link-up on National Pensions Day allowed results and comments to be shared, so that a more in-depth picture could be developed throughout the day.
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An online questionnaire was also developed for the project. This was a self-selecting process, available to anyone with access to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) website. Publicity was given by national newspapers and via the local recruitment process.
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A pension's debate resource pack was developed in order to allow stakeholders to run their own events. This could all be downloaded from the DWP website and feedback from these events was fed back to OLR electronically or by post. The organisations running these events had no restrictions on recruitment and could run the event for whoever they liked.
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There was also an interesting comparison of attitudes taken from participants at the beginning and end of the regional events and National Pensions Day events. Before the process even started it was clear that this was an issue people felt strongly about: 93 per cent of participants felt pensions were a "quite important" or "very important" issue.
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Following the day's events, 55 per cent of participants felt they knew "a lot" about pensions (compared to just 13 per cent at the start). In terms of solutions, at the end of the process participants agreed with the Turner Report that people would have to save more for their retirement (88 per cent), employers would have to contribute more to employees' pensions (85 per cent), a greater share of taxes would have to be spent on pensions (80 per cent) and people would have to work for longer (57 per cent); these were all higher levels of agreement than had occurred at the beginning of the day.
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The contrast of these results with those from the online debate showed the online respondents to be overall more motivated (99 per cent considered pensions to be important) and a more informed group (58 per cent already felt they knew "a lot" about pensions).
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These participants also felt most strongly about saving more, followed by a greater share of taxes going to pensions, increasing average retirement age and pensioners becoming poorer compared with the rest of society.
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Project results:

The report from the National Pensions Debate was published by OLR in May 2006 and the Government developed proposals based upon the Turner Report and results from the debate, published in late May 2006.
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There then followed a further round of rather more standard consultation, as opposed to another large deliberative process, with approximately 350 responses. The Pensions Bill was finally introduced into parliament on 28th November 2006. Some of the key points in the Bill following national pension's debate are as follows:

State retirement age to be increased to 68 to ensure changes are affordable
A fairer deal for women (simpler and fairer to build up a state pension)
A "delivery authority" to set up a national saving scheme for delivering personal accounts

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The Bill broadly reflects feedback from the National Pensions Debate; it has proceeded successfully so far and is now awaiting 2nd reading in the House of Lords.
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As well as success in contributing to radical changes in state pension policy, the deliberative process of the National Pensions Debate had an additional three further effects: an increase in national awareness of the importance of pensions and surrounding issues; an increase in understanding of some of the difficulties and processes involved in dealing with policy on an issue such as pensions; and an increased connection certainly between event attendees and the democratic processes of Government.
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Contact details:

http://www.workandpensions.gov.uk/pensionsreform/debate/
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