Pensions minister Steve Webb is hitting the airwaves this week to spread the word about the government’s ‘guidance guarantee’ and to answer questions on the new pension reforms set to come in next year.
Beginning with a session on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show tomorrow (18 November), the minister will repeat his live phone-in surgery every week between now and Christmas, hitting BBC stations serving Scotland, Manchester, Newcastle and Kent. More regional stations will be covered next year.
Next week, the government is also planning to launch an advertising campaign entitled ‘Your Pension, Your Future’, to raise awareness of reforms to the state pension.
The Department for Work and Pensions has also launched PensionTube today (17 November), a YouTube page which currently has no videos, but promises to bring together content from the government and trusted independent sources covering a range of pension-related issues.
Ros Altmann, independent pensions expert and the government’s business champion for older workers, will be one of the first bloggers to appear on the channel, discussing the reforms to the state pension for people reaching state pension age after April 2016.
Mr Webb said: “It’s only natural that people will have questions about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how it will affect them – and I want the chance to speak to as many of those people as possible.
“Politicians should be accessible and this is a great way for me to engage with people all over the country about pensions in a direct way.”
peter.walker@ft.com
