On radio and television, there is an endless assumption that if there is a problem the state can and should sort it out. The state, implicitly, can be trusted to do the job once it decides to.

Meanwhile there is similarly a perennial drip, drip of adverse comment about pension mis-selling by commercial companies and how such companies are always out to rip you off and are surely in need of evermore regulation.

This assumption that the state is to be trusted and commerce is to be regarded with suspicion often seems normal and widespread in the population as well as in the broadcast media. Yet there is a double-think going on somewhere. For every now and again, there is a poll which reveals that confidence in the state is not so great after all when people are asked concrete questions.

A year or more ago, Ian Duncan Smith's organisation had a polling company ask people how they would use money to do good work. Only a tiny minority thought that handing the money to the government would mean the job was well done. Now there comes a poll by the Association of British Insurers. It asked people whether they trusted the Government to deliver on its pension promises. Only 23 per cent did.

When people were asked if they trusted their company pension schemes, the trust level soared to 74 per cent.

This is part of the ABI press release:

the ABI’s research shows that trust in the Government to deliver on their pensions promises is very low, with only 23% of working people saying that they trust the Government in relation to state pensions. Conversely, 74% of people in work-based pensions do trust their employer to deliver on their private pensions.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in General

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