The government has been forced into an emergency review after uncovered documents reveal that three out of four British workers are on track for a retirement income below the poverty line. Sources inside the Department for Work and Pensions confirm that the review, ordered by No10, is a desperate attempt to head off a looming crisis. The figures, buried in a treasury analysis, show that auto-enrolment schemes are failing millions, with median pension pots set to deliver less than £10,000 a year.
This is a disaster decades in the making, a slow-motion train wreck that consecutive governments chose to ignore. The review will examine the adequacy of contributions, the role of workplace pensions, and the possibility of a state-backed scheme. But industry insiders say it's too little, too late.
'We're looking at a generation of older people who will be forced to choose between eating and heating,' said a former pensions minister who asked not to be named. The pressure is now on the Chancellor to act in the upcoming budget. But with the Treasury counting the cost of the pandemic, don't hold your breath.
