Alistair McQueen

Head of Savings & Retirement at @avivaplc ... runner, cycler, golfer and tenor. My views. [email protected]

[Alistair McQueen @HelloMcQueen]

That was fun! Great to talk about work, life and pensions with the brilliant Jack Parsons of the brilliant Youth Group. @JacksonRParsons @TheYouthGroupHQ

https://t.co/ZalHz8r4En

[David Smith @dsmitheconomics]

My Times piece: It is right to worry about Neets, and high youth unemployment and inactivity. But we should not forget about the over-50s, many of whom are also locked out of the job market:

Older workers may be overlooked solution to inactivity crisis

https://t.co/wfcC6DqsXm

[Alistair McQueen @HelloMcQueen]

@coachkennyruns @talkSPORT @GaryLineker “Definitely hits the hand”. Hmm?

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

Blair putting on full display what is in many ways his special ability - to lay out a political argument grounded in his own view of global trends (globalisation in the 2000s, tech in the 2020s). But…

[Matt Forde @mattforde]

30 years of 30 years of hurt

[Pensions Dashboards Programme @PensionsDboards]

Over 70 million pension records are now connected to the pensions dashboards ecosystem representing around 85% of records in scope 🔌

Connections will continue as we head towards to final connection deadline on 31 October 2026.

[Heidi Karjalainen @Heidi_Karj]

Pleased to see our @TheIFS work being highlighted by the Pensions Commissioners in @guardian coverage today.

The research was commissioned by @DWPgovuk to inform the Pensions Commission, and looks at how working lives shape pension saving and outcomes.

https://t.co/yWfj4gnfn3

[David Hearne, CFP™ @dontdelay]

Fascinating polling on the triple lock

The higher popularity of a double lock with inflation or 2.5%

Rather than a double lock of earnings or 2.5%

Does not suggest much confidence in our growth prospects

[Faisal Islam @faisalislam]

Q1 2026 G7:

🇬🇧 0.6%
🇺🇸 0.5%
🇨🇦 0.4%
🇩🇪 0.3%
🇮🇹 0.2%
🇫🇷 0%

🇯🇵 (not yet reported but estimates are 0.4%)

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

A very strong start to 2026 -significantly above forecasts. GDP/capita rose 0.6% in first three months of 2026 (@OBR_UK expected gdp/capita to grow by 0.8% in 2026 as a whole)

[Aviva plc @avivaplc]

🎯Aviva has delivered another quarter of strong trading, building momentum in 2026.

Here are the headlines from our first quarter trading update.

Read more here 👉https://t.co/uesLvqnoEB

#AvivaQ12026 #FinancialUpdate

[Mohamed A. El-Erian @elerianm]

HUGE jump in US PPI inflation:
Powered by an eye-popping 1.4% rise in April, nearly triple the 0.5% consensus, the annual rate has hit 6% (crushing the 4.8% consensus forecast).
Core PPI followed suit, surging 1% (vs. 0.3% expected), bringing annual core inflation to 5.2% (consensus was 4.3%).
While the mapping isn't 1:1, these numbers strongly suggest that higher consumer inflation is still coming through the pipeline.
#economy #markets #inflation

[Lee David Evans @LeeDavidEvansUK]

If we go back to this Peter Kellner chart, how should the parties be feeling about these local elections?

Lab = Disappointment
Con = Relief
Lib Dem = Relief
Ref = Disaster
Green = Disappointment

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

“Thanks Martin, I found a lost pension from when I was 22, it’s now worth £45,000!” So can you do what Rose did? Martin shows you how to check…

This is just a snip from the full Martin Lewis Money Show Pensions Special watch it on ITVX

[Ian King @IanKingBusiness]

Why society needs to rethink attitudes towards retirement and what actually constitutes a working life - words from me in today’s edition of @TheTimes:

https://t.co/If2EpbPcwx

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

This one is for the niche audience that wants more charts in politicians’ speeches… offered some reflections on the economic lessons of the shock that we sadly find ourselves in for @ucl inaugural Annual Lecture in Economic Policy https://t.co/9EgrepRir1

[David Robbins @David_J_Robbins]

DWP's press release about the Pension Schemes Bill delivering a "retirement boost of £29k" is absurd for obvious and non-obvious reasons.
First, the obvious part.
- The projected £29k boost is an average, not a uniform uplift, and is based on a whole career. (So today's workers would on average benefit less, as would those who don't have full careers).
- The £29k is calculated using highly uncertain assumptions around several overlapping policies. DWP's impact assessment says "the actual benefits will differ for all savers and may be higher or lower."
- A little over half of the £29k comes from the value-for-money regime. DWP gave this policy a "red, high impact" rating for "analytical risk", noting that "small changes in returns would significantly impact monetization (due to compounding) and future returns are highly uncertain".

But a quirk of the calculation makes suggestions that £29k is a meaningful figure for most workers even less appropriate. The value-for-money regime is assumed to boost average returns by forcing the worst-performing schemes out of the market. That doesn't affect savers in other schemes. So more than half of the "£29k comes from a weighted average of "zero" (most people) and "lots" (some people).

And what does "£29k" mean when we're looking decades ahead? DWP's estimate is in today's earnings terms - so, on assumptions about earnings growth outsripping inflation, the £29k that people would benefit from would buy more than twice as much as £29k does today. On the other hand, this is a boost to the value of pension pots from which withdrawals are mostly taxable. So the boost to retirees' spending power would be <£29k (in today's earnings terms).

I can only presume that someone in DWP's press office keeps insisting that they need a number to sell the story, and "there are good reasons to think that this package of measures will improve outcomes but how much is highly uncertain" isn't a strong enough line.

For context, on DWP's assumptions, the £29k is a roughly equivalent effect to increasing default contribution rates from 8% to 9.5%, but without the pain of paying more. So it's well worth trying to do that - but preferably without pretending that gains of this magnitude are nailed on.

[Alistair McQueen @HelloMcQueen]

@PensionsMonkey Not easy, no. Abandon triple lock?

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

Very good news tonight. The Pension Schemes Bill has completed its journey through Parliament. Time to celebrate before the really important work begins - implementing the huge reforms it contains to deliver better pensions for savers

[Alistair McQueen @HelloMcQueen]

@PensionsMonkey Strong words. What actions do you recommend, specifically?

[Torsten Bell @TorstenBell]

We’ve got a pensions bill entering its final stages. This is important stuff - one of the big wins of the 20th Century was ordinary workers having a retirement, and we need to keep delivering that in the 21st. What’s the bill doing?