At the end of 2021 I’d tried to move my employment tax lecturing business to delivering online but it just wasn’t possible to explain complex calculations and tax legislation over Zoom. Tax can be hard enough face to face in the classroom after all. So I decided it was time to say goodbye to tax, at least in the lecturing sense. Sadly it’s not optional even in retirement!
Then into my inbox came my Pensions Update from M&S. Being an engaged member I read it and saw there was an MNT vacancy from the following April. After a few days of pondering I decided to throw my hat in the ring as this coincided with the end of my final trading year in March 2022. I was a deferred member having left M&S in 2001 as one of the company’s payroll managers with 20 years’ service in a non-contributory DB scheme. Along the way I’d married a commercial manager at M&S who also left after 20+ years. Clearly we had a lot of skin in the game and a great deal to be thankful for in respect to pension provision. It felt right to offer to put something back.
After a rigorous selection process I was fortunate to be appointed for my five-year term that began in April 2022. From the outset I never felt that I was one of the ‘lay’ members of the board. All of us, regardless of background, are required to study the TPR Toolkit and achieve our PMI trusteeship qualification within 12 months of appointment. We were supported in this by training organised for us by our executive team, but it’s fair to say everyone who joins is daunted going back to study and to take an exam after so many years. But during those 20 years since I left the company I had been developing skills that I know have added value during my tenure as a trustee.
This was one of the themes of the recent AMNT response to the DWP consultation on Trusteeship. The only distinction around our boardroom is that some of us are scheme members and others are there either as sponsor representatives or because they have a specific skill set, say in investment or ESG. We are not divided into professional and lay Trustees – a first and second division if you like. But since joining the AMNT committee and meeting other Trustees, I realise that I’m very fortunate to be part of a scheme that places such importance on support for training for trustees to perform their crucial role. For Trustees who are still employed by the sponsor that is not always the case.
Despite legal protection having been in existence since 1996 for paid time off to attend meetings, training and to take exams, too many trustees don’t get what they are entitled to when they agree to take on the role in addition to their day job, and that should include their workload being adjusted to accommodate their additional responsibilities. We made this point strongly when we met with DWP and the Pensions Minister in February ahead of the consultation closing.
Being a Trustee is not a vocation, but those undertaking this vital role should be treated with respect, whatever their background. We have been appointed and ‘trusted’ to look after the interests of members who also have legal rights to a worry free ‘wage in retirement’ that their scheme membership provides. In my case around 100,000 members, the vast majority who were, like me, female, part-time and fitting work around family responsibilities. Our average pensions may be small in financial terms but they make a real difference to the quality of life of our members and I feel a huge responsibility to them to make sure their pension arrives in their bank account each month, just as those members arrived for work day in day out; and retailing is no picnic I can assure you.
As I come to the end of my five-year term as an MNT I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to represent the members who nominated me. As DB gives way to megafund DC and CDC vehicles there must be a place for MNTs in all those schemes. We have a unique perspective and … please don’t call us ‘lay trustees’ as we don’t lack specialised knowledge, training, or professional expertise, far from it!
