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Pension reform in the United Kingdom: an economic perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Richard Disney
Richard Disney*
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics, University of Sussex; Visiting Professor of Economics, University College, London; Research Fellow, Institute for Fiscal Studies
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper considers the evolution of the UK's pension programme in the light of various stated rationales for public intervention. It argues that the publicly-provided (tax-financed) pension programme has gone through four distinct stages since 1946. It examines some of the issues that have arisen in the context of private pension provision in the UK, both in the form of so-called ‘defined benefit’ and ‘defined contribution’ pension plans, as well as individual purchases of annuities.

Keywords

pension reformemployer-provided pensionsannuitiesH55J32G22
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 237 , August 2016 , pp. R6 - R12
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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