AMNT has successfully campaigned on many issues since its formation and will continue to liaise with and lobby Government and the Regulator, to defend the position of member nominated trustees and highlight the unique role they play in the protection of members’ interests. However, whilst the Association will continue its campaigning and educational activities it would also make a plea to the next Government on behalf of ALL citizens.

Please focus on the biggest issue of all – providing a decent pension at the end of a lifetime of work. Current personal pension provision is demonstrably failing for many of those not fortunate enough to be in one of the dwindling numbers of DB schemes.

The 2004 Pensions Commission concluded that people on an ‘average’ income would need the equivalent of two-thirds of their pay as a pension to enjoy a comfortable retirement. AMNT urges the incoming government to put this aim front and centre of all future policy decisions.

In the case of DB schemes it is in the government’s and workers’ interests to keep those that are still open going and to return their benefits to earlier, higher levels. Many people who started off accruing at 60ths are now at 80ths,or even 100ths, which leaves them needing to work for over half a century to get the pension they need. It also means using surpluses to ensure the inflation proofing of pensions is restored, both for the recent years of high inflation and those in "pre 97" pensions with no uplifts. Then, instead of the fundamentally unfair recent proposal that surpluses should be returned to employers, a process whereby both pensioners and employers can agree a strategy to allow schemes to run on to the benefit of both, which will encourage them to put more long-term investment into corporate Britain.

The AMNT has been vocal in its criticism of the initial proposal to return all surpluses to employers and will be happy to engage with the next government on this issue.

For those in DC schemes, again the aim must be for a target outcome of two-thirds of their final pay – which under current structures has little chance of being achieved without substantially more being contributed. Whilst enacting the proposed changes to auto enrolment will help, AMNT also asks that the new multi-employer collective defined contribution (CDC) system, which can produce much better returns for pension savers, should be rolled out with urgency and focus right from the start on aiming for a pension of two-thirds of the member’s pay.

Additionally, when the new CDC system is established, the next government should investigate how the millions of freelance, casual and self-employed workers, many of whom have no pension at all, can access its benefits.

And we also believe that it is vital that pension scheme governance includes member nominated trustees at its heart. Our own experience shows that MNTs have a perspective and a voice that is not replicated by the financial services industry. We need the next government to support our role by enacting the recommendations we set out in our Future of Trusteeship proposals*.

We also need the next government to take action to finally empower trustees to have proper stewardship of their assets, ending the monopoly of fund managers to vote the holdings in pooled funds however they like regardless of the views of pension funds. We regard climate change as a systemic risk, not just to the assets of pension schemes, but also to the world in which our pensioner members will eventually retire and it is our fiduciary duty to be able to exercise our stewardship.

After a lifetime of work, people should be entitled to a secure retirement. AMNT and its members will work to ensure that the pension schemes in which they invest are professionally managed in their interest – but only the government can make the fundamental changes needed to ensure that there is a laser-like focus on achieving the magic number.

-Ends-

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Notes to Editors

For further information please contact Andrew Sharkey on this email address or on 07711 825439

*Pensions Trusteeship Report 22.05.23.pdf

The Association of Member Nominated Trustees was established in September 2010 to bring together member-nominated trustees, directors and representatives of public and private sector pension schemes to give trustees a collective voice, to provide mutual support and information exchange and to campaign on matters of concern. The AMNT has around 800 members from pension funds with collective assets of approximately £1-trillion.

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