New Pensions Minister revealed as Alex Burghart

Alex Burghart is the new Minister of Pensions and replaces Guy Opperman who worked for five years at the Ministry of Labor and Pensions.

Burghart, Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar since 2017, was previously a member of Parliament’s Employment and Pensions Selection Committee and Minister of Skills at the Department of Education from September 2021 to July this year.

The son of two teachers and a former teacher himself, he became Policy Director at the Center for Social Justice and later Special Adviser to Theresa May in Downing Street, before winning the election in his Essex constituency.

Burghart arrives amid market turmoil as the Bank of England intervenes in the bond market to support final income pension plans, and many people on defined contribution pensions face large investment losses.

Burghart’s immediate priorities as Pensions Minister are to strengthen support for automatic enrollment among savers during a cost of living crisis, deploy the retirement dashboard and decide on future increases in state pension age.

Burghart will also have to continue with the massive correction of state pensions affecting tens of thousands of elderly women, estimated to have been underpaid by about £1.5 billion in total in a scandal uncovered by former pensions minister Steve Webb and This is Money.

We and Webb, now our columnist and a partner at LCP, recently uncovered new failures with some younger women who have worked all their lives being unfairly denied state pensions, prompting a full investigation into “zero” or suspiciously low pay for women turns 66.

Opperman was deposed by the incoming Liz Truss government and tweeted about his departure last month – see below.

Burghart enters the post at a worrying moment, with the Bank of England bond buying contingency plan within days, Patrick Bloomfield, partner at Hymans Robertson.

“The new minister faces even more challenges as the current cost of living crisis continues to rise, but we believe there is an opportunity to make a strong and committed start to his role, learning how policy decisions affect the end-user.” influence and by listening to the industry. concerns about existing policies.

“The roll-out of the pension dashboard and defined benefit financing arrangements urgently needs to be reconsidered so that their implementation achieves long-term policy goals without unintended short-term consequences.

‘We are also curious about his response to the recommendations of the Work and Pensions Committee to resolve the pension gap between men and women.’

Kate Smith, Aegon’s head of pensions, welcomed Burghart’s appointment, adding: “He will have a lot on his plate and many things vying for attention, including reassuring savers in these troubling times.

Top priorities for the new minister include getting pension dashboards over the line, continuing to focus on pension awareness, introducing a plan to implement the recommendations of the 2017 car registration review, finding pension solutions for self-employed workers, advancing the proposed Value of Money framework, and collaborating between governments and regulators to better support pension savers in making retirement decisions.

“It is important that the new Minister of Pensions works closely with the Treasury in reviewing the tax deductions for pensions, especially the Lifetime Allowance and the Annual Cash Purchase Allowance to enable and encourage retirement savings.”