The framing of retirement planning rules should be removed from the political arena and handed over to an independent body if the UK is to ever solve the pensions 'crisis', according to Paul Jayson, a partner at consulting actuarial firm Barnett Waddingham.

Speaking to Pensions Age, Jayson said that short-term thinking and "knee-jerk" reactions have greatly damaged pension provision in the UK and that pensions needed to be looked at in the context of a 40-year horizon. To achieve this, he argued, pension scheme policy would need to be separated from Government, in a similar manner to monetary policy and interest rate regulation.

Jayson cited the PPF and Personal Accounts as two examples of the 'short-termism' that has blighted the pensions landscape.

"The PPF was a short-term political manoeuvre designed to stop pensioners taking to the streets (and protesting at the loss of their benefits)," he said. "Taking it to its logical conclusion, with a shrinking levy-paying base, it will be left with very little to support it." The result, he argued, would be taxpayers helping to maintain absolute benefit guarantees for a minority of the population, while they themselves have no chance of being granted similar pension promises.

As for Personal Accounts, Jayson fears that accumulation of a pensions pot under the system could undermine state benefit entitlement for many lower-paid workers, causing them to be worse off in retirement then if they hadn't saved at all.

"We need long-term, integrated policies which seriously look at demographics and cost, rather than 'short-termism' in pensions," he added.

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