Tories will not scrap personal accounts

The Conservative Party has confirmed it will not scrap personal accounts should it win next year's general election.

Speaking at the National Association of Pension Fund's seminar - The 2012 Pensions Reforms: In Depth, held yesterday - pensions spokesman Nigel Waterson said he was working to persuade Conservative leader David Cameron of "the need of some continuity" on pensions.

He said: "I do stress this [personal accounts] is not comparable to something like the introduction of identity cards, which is a reform we will scrap altogether."

However, Waterson said the future system would need to be simple, accessible and easy to operate for the people who currently do not have access to a pension.

He said: "We need to find the best possible design for personal accounts."

Waterson said, should the Tories assume power next year, they would look at all important changes to pensions which can be introduced "quickly and effectively without legislation, given the huge log jam of colleagues desperate to get a legislative slot in the first parliament".

He also said he was concerned over the level of complexity regarding the auto-enrolment mechanism.

Under the current design, employees will be automatically enrolled into the scheme, but could opt out if they wish to do so.

Waterson indicated reducing the level of complexity in the auto-enrolment provisions would be a priority for the Conservatives.

He said: "It has to be a system which is easy and cheap to comply with. Also, we do not see why auto-enrolment and personal accounts have to be umbilically linked. We had auto-enrolment in our political manifesto before personal accounts were designed."