UK - James Purnell, secretary of state for work and pensions, has confirmed Jeannie Drake will temporarily replace Paul Myners as chair of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA).

Speaking at the annual conference of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), Purnell said the government had asked Drake (pictured), a member of the earlier Pensions Commission who proposed the idea of personal accounts, to take on the acting position to ensure continuity for the organisation.

Myners resigned from the post of chair of PADA last Friday when he was appointed Minister for the City in a government reshuffle - a move which also saw Rosie Winterton replace Mike O'Brien as minister for pensions reform. (See earlier IPE article: Cabinet shake-up sparks pensions people changes)

Purnell said: "I'm pleased to announce we have asked Jeannie Drake to be acting chair of PADA, and she has agreed to do that to ensure continuity while we are moving to advertise to recruit a replacement chair."

In his speech, he also reiterated the government would go ahead with an annual reconciliation mechanism for qualifying earnings, with schemes allowed to calculate contributions on basic or full earnings as long as the contributions are "the same or more than 8% of qualifying earnings" - which is based on total banded earnings of between £5,035 and £33,540 (in 2006 earnings terms). (See earlier IPE article: Gov't denies policy u-turn on personal accounts).

In response to concerns suggesting the government should have made more concessions, Purnell said: "We think we have struck a right balance to make it relatively easy for schemes, but as we move into the final stages of the Pensions Bill we will see if there is anything further we can do."

In her first public appearance since being appointed pensions minister, Winterton said the focus of the pensions industry now "needs to move to the huge challenge of [personal accounts] delivery, which takes place in a difficult economic time".

She said: "We need to ask how it can be delivered and how it can be delivered effectively, as if we get it right it will make a huge difference to the whole population."

Purnell added: "Auto-enrolment into personal accounts is a significant challenge but we're confident it's something that can be done, and it's one of the fundamental reasons why the Turner Commission went for personal accounts instead of auto-enrolment into stakeholders as that would have been very difficult to do."

"We've always recognised it as one of the important delivery challenges, but one we're on the way to meeting," he added.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Julie Henderson on + 44 (0)20 7261 4602 or email julie.henderson@ipe.com

 

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