Following Esther McVey’s resignation last week, Amber Rudd – the former UK home secretary – has been appointed work and pensions secretary.
The move has been received with much scepticism from the financial services industry, as Rudd becomes the sixth person to assume this position in the last two-and-a-half years, dimming confidence in a swift and prompt reform to domestic pension policy.
Rudd quit as home secretary at the end of April following the Windrush scandal, which involved the possible deportation of children of British African-Caribbean immigrants.
“The chances of Rudd being the concrete force able to weather the political storm is unlikely” said Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter.
“Her fate is tied to that of the prime minister, who is undeniably on shaky ground. In fact, that alliance is probably one of the main reasons [Theresa] May added her back into the cabinet, as Rudd’s experience with pensions seems a bit sparse.”
Brexit effect
However, any domestic pensions policy could be put aside to deal with the upcoming Brexit events.
“Right now, domestic pensions policy issues are probably a long way from Amber Rudd’s mind as Westminster lurches from one Brexit crisis to another” said Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell.
“For Rudd it is very much a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. Having left the Home Office – a department still dealing with the fallout from the Windrush scandal – Rudd will now have to defend the government’s Universal Credit programme and its treatment of [Women Against State Pension Inequality] women facing hikes in their state pension age.”
Pensions dashboard
The pensions dashboard, together with Universal Credit, is one of the hot topics left for Rudd to deal with. And, while she has proclaimed her support, there is very low confidence that she will be able to pull it off in the current political climate.
“We’ve seen ongoing delays in progress on the pension dashboard as well as a lack of clarity from government on what it will look like,” said Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon.
“This uncertainty creates real opportunity for the new secretary of state for work and pensions to quickly make her mark in her new role by prioritising delivery of the pension dashboard, especially as we’re hearing that the feasibility study is almost ready to be published.
“Industry has made its support and commitment to the development of the dashboard clear and we now need government to back the initiative.
“The first step in this process is for the department for work and pensions to publish its feasibility study and we hope that Rudd will make this a priority and deliver an update on the development of the pension dashboard in a matter of days.”
