It seems like only yesterday that The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) was a done deal. However, a contract with administration provider Tata Consultancy Services will now be reviewed as new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, begins his attempts at cutting the deficit by reducing waste in the public sector. Laws will asking the Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, to re-examine all spending approvals given since the beginning of the year. All Proposals that required Treasury approvals will have to be resubmitted to the Treasury.
Laws says: "Where projects are good value for money and consistent with the Government’s priorities, they will go ahead. Where they are not, it would be irresponsible to waste money on them. There is no point in continuing pilot schemes where they are too costly to implement."
The Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA) announced in early March that Tata Consultancy Services was the successful bidder for the Nest scheme administration services (PADA, TATA, NEST, these chaps do like an acronym !). Former Pensions Minister Angela Eagle signed the first stage of the contract later that month. The contract runs for 10 years, with possible extensions for up to a further five years, and is worth around £600m. The first stage was scheduled to run until October this year, allowing Tata to begin the activity required to set up and administer Nest.
Newly appointed Pensions Minister Liberal Democrat Steve Webb (the seventh in four years !) will be charged with signing the second stage of the contract, if it passes the Treasury review. What odds, a) NEST goes on the back-burner, and b) there is another new Pensions Minister before the year is out. Potential pensioners, and yes that is everyone, deserve better.