Wish for more radical pension tips

Lord Turner said he wishes he had been more radical in his proposals for pension reform

The head of the City watchdog has said that he wished he had been more radical in his proposals for pension reform.

Lord Turner, who headed up the Government's Pensions Commission, said if he could redo his report he would have called for an even faster increase in the state pension age to fund a more generous state pension.

In his report he proposed increasing the state retirement age to as high as 69 by 2050 to finance a more generous basic state pension that would rise in line with earnings from 2010.

He also called for workers to be automatically enrolled into occupational pensions, into which they must pay at least 4% of their salary, with their employer paying in 3% and the Government contributing 1%.

The Government has pledged to implement his proposals, including raising the state pension age to 68 by 2046, and introducing auto-enrolment from 2012.

Speaking to the BBC, Lord Turner said: "If I was redoing my report I would be more radical, arguing for an even faster increase in the state pension age to make affordable an even bigger increase than we suggested in the indexation of the state pension, to really get it so it gets people out of poverty without means-testing.

"My gut feel is that if I was to do it again, having seen what I've seen, I would probably say that we should have been more radical."

He said at the time he was doing his report there were proposals around to increase the age at which people could draw their state pension to 70 by 2030.

Lord Turner said if this had happened, it could have funded a state pension that was equal to the minimum income guarantee, taking away means-testing.

He also suggested that generous final salary pensions for public sector workers should be changed to career average ones. He said: "We have to make it sustainable and we have to make it fair. I think it should move to average salary from final salary. I think it should have flexible and variable pension ages to make sure the taxpayer is not picking up all of the risk of future unknown increases in pensionable age."