Webb confirms white paper will be 'minty' green

The claim that David Cameron was putting the brakes on the reform, allegedly because of fears it would turn off older Conservative voters, was originally reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday.

Webb formally addressed the claims at the annual PW Leadership of Pensions Summit yesterday.

“The prime minister has said earlier this year that he’s behind this, and it was in the Budget," he said. "That’s why we’re bringing the flat rate in.

"The white paper will be coming in autumn; okay, fair cop, it’s not a spring white paper like we said, but it will be coming in autumn.”

When PW questioned the minister on whether the white paper has indeed been downgraded from prescriptive to consultative as rumoured, Webb confirmed that it might well end up being something of a hybrid green-white paper.

“There’s a lot of detail, and it’s important to consult on that... I suppose you could call it minty,” he answered.

He emphasised that this issue had not caused a rift between his department and Downing Street, and that the reform would go ahead.

“The core principle will be there in the paper, and it is going to happen,” he said.

However, Webb’s admission that the already postponed paper has been downgraded gives weight to speculation that the government is rethinking the specifics of pensions reform, which could delay the bill even further.

Ros Altmann, director-general of the Saga Group, said a further delay in the reform has serious consequences for auto-enrolment.

“I don’t believe we can safely auto-enrol people without moving to a flat-rate state pension, because many savings could be lost. In fact it would be fairly similar to nationwide pensions mis-selling instigated by the government," she said.

“The reform should have been done alongside auto-enrolment, not after it. Any delay of the flat-rate reform just compounds the problem.”

Fraser Smart, managing director at Buck Consultants, added: “The Liberal Democrat pensions minister is trying to get through state pensions reform while the Conservative prime minister is a worried man. He does not want another "granny tax" row.

"Yet he cannot give the £140 weekly flat pension to current pensioners without taking it from those who are getting more than that in state pension.”

Smart predicts that when the paper comes, it will be constructed to allow “a lot more wriggle room for the prime minister and the Conservatives".