Current Research

PPI research over the next 12-18 months will concentrate on 3 broad themes.

Theme 1: Providing an evidence base on current and future trends in retirement income provision in the UK

1.1 Pensions Primer and Pensions Facts

The PPI publishes reference manuals that describe the current pension system in the UK and give key facts and figures on retirement income provision in the UK.  Click here for further details.

1.2 Pensions Modelling

The PPI has developed a suite of economic models (funded by the Nuffield Foundation) that enable the PPI to model the implications of alternative pension policies for hypothetical individuals, for the total aggregate costs of the pensions system and of the distributional implications of alternative policies. The models underpin much of the PPI’s research.  Click here for further details.

1.3 New Dynamics of Ageing

The PPI was part of a consortium which was awarded a grant by the Research Councils, including the ESRC, under their New Dynamics of Ageing research programme.  This was to conduct a study of Modelling Needs and Resources of Older People to 2030 in collaboration with researchers at the University of East Anglia, University of Leicester, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the London School of Economics.  The three year study began in January 2007 and ended June 2010.  Full details of the project and the end of project launch can be found on the MAP2030 website, please follow the link http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/MAP2030/

1.4 Retirement Income and Assets

This research will take a holistic view of the need for retirement income and the use of different types of assets during retirement.  The research will take the form of a series of reports looking at the potential different profiles of needs during retirement and the respective roles of state and private pensions, housing, other assets, and earnings in meeting those needs.  A series of research reports was published during 2009 and a further reports will be published in 2010.  The research is being supported by a consortium of organisations including: Age UK, ABI, DWP, HM Treasury, IMA, J.P Morgan Asset Management, Partnership, Prudential UK and Which?.

The first report in the series was published on 28th April 2009 and considered whether pensioners have sufficent income to meet their needs. Click here to read a copy of the research report and click here to download the presentations and the write-up of the launch event which was hosted by the Association of British Insurers.

The second report in the series was published on 15th September 2009 and considered the role that housing wealth could play in supporting retirement for today’s pensioners and for future generations of pensioners. The report has been sponsored by Prudential UK & Europe.  Click here to read a copy of the research report and click here to download the presentations and the write-up of the launch event which was hosted by Prudential UK.

The third report ‘How can pensions and financial assets support retirement?’, sponsored by J.P. Morgan Asset Management, considers the role that state and private pensions and other financial assets are likely to play in supporting retirement incomes today and in the future.  Click here to read a copy of the research report and click here to download the presentations and the write-up of the launch event which was hosted by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.  

The fourth report in the retirement income and assets series considered the income and assets that a future generation of pensioners, reaching state pension age in 2030, may have to support retirement.  Click here to read a copy of the research report.  The report wasl launched on 11 February 2010 at an event hosted by the Association of British Insurers.  Click here to download the presentations and the write-up of the launch event.

The fifth report in the retirement income and assets series, 'An analysis of the implications of ending the effective requirement to annuitise by age 75' investigates alternative proposals to the current effective requirements to annuitise by age 75 and explores how different policies may impact on saving behavour, individual financial outcomes in retirement, the insurance industry, and the Government (in terms of tax revenue and benefit provision).  The Government is currently consulting on how best to implement alternative regulations to the effective requirement to annuitise by age 75.  The PPI will respond to the Government consultation.  The report will be launched towards the end of 2010.

 

Theme 2: The design and policy implications of the Government’s state and private pension reforms

The PPI will continue to contribute to debates about reform in state and private pensions, including the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), auto-enrolment and tax relief. 

2.1 PPI Election Briefing

The PPI held its annual Supporting Members event on 2 March 2010, in which the spokespeople on pensions and retirement issues from the three main political parties gave a short presentation on their party’s policies on pensions and retirement provision.

2.2 The tax treament of employer sponsored pensions

The Actuarial Profession has commissioned the PPI to undertake research looking at the impact of various changes in the taxation environment in which employer sponsored pension schemes have been operating, and how this may change in future.  The project will begin in March 2010.

2.3 Pensioner poverty

The PPI has been funded by Age UK to explore the impact of various policy interventions which would affect pensioner poverty levels in the UK.  The project began in April 2010 and is scheduled to finish in September / October 2010.

 

Theme 3: The future of existing occupational pension provision

The PPI is conducting further follow-up research on the future of the public sector pensions schemes.

3.1 The future of the public sector pensions schemes 

Following on from the research An assessment of the Government's reforms to public sector pensions published in October 2008, the PPI is conducting a further research project on the future of the public sector pension schemes.  The research is funded by The Nuffield Foundation.

A discussion paper covering the objectives of reform and possible reform options was presented at a round-table event hosted by the Nuffield Foundation on 28 January 2010.  Click here to read a copy of the the discussion paper.  The PPI will publish an assessment of these policy options against the policy objectives later in 2010.

The PPI has submitted evidence to John Hutton MP’s Independent Public Service Pensions Commission in July 2010, please click here to read.