Baroness Altmann quit at the weekend, telling the new Prime Minister Theresa May that she had been exasperated by what she viewed as short term political considerations overriding long term policy decisions. Read more on this here.
The long time pensions campaigner stepped into the role after being appointed by David Cameron, following the Conservatives’ victory at the May 2015 General Election.
Claire Trott, of Talbot and Muir, Martin Tilley, of Dentons Pension Management and Elaine Turtle, of DP Pensions, all said it would be ‘unfair’ to give her a rating for her time in charge.
Mr Tilley, director of technical services at Dentons, said: “It is unfair to judge someone’s efforts when they have not been allowed to fulfil the role to the best of their ability due to matters outside of their control."
Ms Trott, Talbot and Muir’s head of pensions technical, said: “She was on the back foot from the start and had a lot of issues to deal with from day one."
She said: "I really don’t believe she was given enough support or freedom to prove or disprove herself."
Elaine Turtle, Director, DP Pensions, said: “Ros has focused on the issues for those very close to retirement and while this is very important, what is needed is encouragement for young people to understand the need to start to save as much as they can, as young as they can.”
Asked whether the exit of Baroness Altmann would be bad news for long term pension policy making, Ms Turtle said: “In terms of long-term policy making, there isn’t a cohesive plan and that is what we will all be looking for in the new Minister and the Treasury.”
Mr Tilley said: “It’s not good news simply because it means we are now back to an early stage of a new minister getting their feet under the table.
“Ros at least had a huge amount of detailed pensions knowledge. I recall that around 20 years ago a new minister was elected to the position from ‘nowhere’ and when asked how they felt about their new role replied “I’ve been on an extensive one week training course and now feel sufficiently up to speed to fulfil my duties!”
“Making an influential difference in a ministerial position requires a detailed knowledge of the office and despite having this Ros, was still not able to influence the political bandwagon that is the juggernaut with its own agenda.”
Ms Trott said: “I don’t believe that it is bad for long term savings necessarily, that will depend on the new Pensions Minister and their influence on Government policy. The most recent changes in pensions and proposals have been very ad hoc and it didn’t feel like there was a long term plan in place.”