When a football team is losing in the dying minutes of an important game, the manager’s carefully contrived tactics often go out the window in favour of a ‘throw-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-at-the-opposition’ approach.
At this point you are more than likely to see the goalkeeper rushing into the opposition half for set pieces or in some circumstances – when things get really desperate – the keeper will be substituted for another attacking outfield player to enhance the fire power up front – although that’s probably more often the case in sports like ice hockey.
It’s a desperate all-or-nothing approach; anything to clinch a win or pull a goal back to level the score and perhaps sneak extra time.
It seems to me there is a whiff of this with the raft of pensions reform the government has thrown into the market in the past few months, which is a bit like a last gasp attempt to seal a victory among the electorate. By announcing radical changes to pensions, which favour the pension scheme member, the Chancellor has done the political equivalent of tactically commanding his goalkeeper to score at the other end, or even chucking an extra outfield player on the pitch in order to sneak a late winner – in this case in next year’s general election.
The industry was blindsided by George Osborne’s Budget in March given there was no consultation leading up to the announcement that from April 2015 DC retirees will be able to take as much of their pension pot as they want at retirement subject only to their marginal rate of tax and that everyone with a DC pension will be offered free and impartial face-to-face guidance on their financial choices when they retire (guidance guarantee).
Since then collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes, which pay benefits out of pooled assets accumulated over time allowing investment risk to be spread over generations, will be considered by government after it was announced in the Queen’s Speech last week.
I am not suggesting these measures are ill-conceived and it is refreshing to see this urgency from the government on pensions. Indeed, it seems the industry feels the same having largely welcomed offering savers the freedom and choice over their pension pots and tentatively given its backing to CDC.
But, now the government has announced these proposals it needs to let trustees, members and providers know exactly what the plan is as soon as possible. It has left itself a lot to put in place before the deadline next year and it will require more than just asking the goalkeeper to go on the attack to grab a win before the final whistle next April.
The England team kicks off its World Cup campaign tomorrow night against Italy in Manaus. As with the last major tournament, Euro 2012, the weight of expectation on our boys is not too heavy, which could in fact see them play good football and, who knows, maybe even do well?
The pressure is however on the government to deliver meaningful and beneficial pensions reform, but balancing the fine line of pleasing the electorate and ensuring the measures aren’t rushed and are fully thought through will be tough – and we don’t want it scoring an own goal just before the end of the game.
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