How the new Liberal Conservative Coalition will tackle the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme remains to be seen. They have tasked a couple of true blues with managing Britain’s looming pension crisis: former Tory leader report to Iain Duncan Smith takes on the role of secretary of state for work and pensions and will head up the Department of Work and Pensions; beneath him is Chris Grayling as the junior work and pensions minister.

The secretary of state for work and pensions is a UK cabinet post, and the appointee takes on responsibility for managing the Department for Work and Pensions. The post was created in 2001 following a merger of the Department of Social Security and the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment. The Ministry of Pensions itself was created in 1916 to manage the payment of war pensions to former members of the Armed Forces and their dependants. It has evolved to a far more wide ranging remit these days and in the current economic climate is going to have to make some drastic cuts.

Chris Grayling’s political clout has slipped somewhat since he expressed the view that homosexuals could legitimately be turned away by hoteliers. The comments were made when he was shadow home secretary. Meanwhile Iain Duncan Smith is resurging after being much maligned during his time as Tory leader. These two gentlemen have certainly taken roles that can make or break them. The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme has been criticized for its cost structure and for overspending on branding. Whether the Liberal Conservative Coalition will tinker with the scheme is unknown, but one would think that substantial changes are not unlikely.

Grayling’s views on hoteliers were, “I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences. I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it’s a question of somebody who’s doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn’t come into their own home.” This, however, was an expression of a former opinion and he pointed to the fact that he has actually voted for legislation that would not allow such discrimination.

Chris Grayling is the Member of Parliament for Surrey’s Epsom and Ewell and he has held this position since the General Election in 2001. Graying previously spent two years as work and pensions spokesman from 2007 to 2009 and between 2005 and 2007 was transport spokesman. Back in 2002 he was health spokesman. At the level of local politics he is a member of Epsom Rotary, Chairman of Epsom and District Victim Support, and President of the Ewell and Stoneleigh Chamber of Trade.

Iain Duncan Smith has been given a role that allows him to build on the work he has been doing in a think tank that he set up known as the Centre for Social Justice. The reports coming out of the group have portrayed Britain not as a country in crisis, but as a society in crisis, where the financial problems with the pensions structure are just the tip of the iceberg. IDS, as Duncan Smith is known, believes that families are the building blocks of a healthy society. We can expect him to come up with some policies to give tax advantages to families.

IDS is an anti-poverty crusader and through the Centre for Social Justice he recently published a call for benefits reform that allowed people to continue receiving benefits for a short time after they continued working. Unfortunately given the current economic conditions what IDS is going to have to do is cut spending rather than increase it. The best he can do is change some allocations, but it is unlikely to meet the ambitions of his think tank. One thing that he is sure to go after is the penalty that sees couples that live together have less benefit entitlements than those that live apart – If Iain Duncan Smith ends this situation then it may well be at the expense of single parents.

We certainly have an interesting team at the pensions department and this is likely to be a very closely scrutinized area of the new government. Iain Duncan Smith once told the Conservative back benchers to ‘unite or die’ one wonders whether he will tell the British people to ‘save or starve’. That isn’t too far from reality as a result of the massive deficit that is running up. The How the new Liberal Conservative Coalition will tackle the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme remains to be seem. They have tasked a couple of true blues with managing Britain’s looming pension crisis: former Tory leader report to Iain Duncan Smith takes on the role of secretary of state for work and pensions and will head up the Department of Work and Pensions; beneath him is Chris Grayling as the junior work and pensions minister.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a UK cabinet post, and the appointee takes on responsibility for managing the Department for Work and Pensions. The post was created in 2001 following a merger of the Department of Social Security and the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment. The Ministry of Pensions itself was created in 1916 to manage the payment of war pensions to former members of the Armed Forces and their dependants. It has evolved to a far more wide ranging remit these days and in the current economic climate is going to have to make some drastic cuts.

Chris Grayling’s political clout has slipped somewhat since he expressed the view that homosexuals could legitimately be turned away by hoteliers. The comments were made when he was shadow home secretary. Meanwhile Iain Duncan Smith is resurging after being much maligned during his time as Tory leader. These two gentlemen have certainly taken roles that can make or break them. The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme has been criticized for its cost structure and for overspending on branding. Whether the Liberal Conservative Coalition will tinker with the scheme is unknown, but one would think that substantial changes are not unlikely.

Grayling’s views on hoteliers were, “I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences. I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it’s a question of somebody who’s doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn’t come into their own home.” This, however, was an expression of a former opinion and he pointed to the fact that he has actually voted for legislation that would not allow such discrimination.

Chris Grayling is the Member of Parliament for Surrey’s Epsom and Ewell and he has held this position since the General Election in 2001. Graying previously spent two years as work and pensions spokesman from 2007 to 2009 and between 2005 and 2007 was transport spokesman. Back in 2002 he was health spokesman. At the level of local politics he is a member of Epsom Rotary, Chairman of Epsom and District Victim Support, and President of the Ewell and Stoneleigh Chamber of Trade.

Iain Duncan Smith has been given a role that allows him to build on the work he has been doing in a think tank that he set up known as the Centre for Social Justice. The reports coming out of the group have portrayed Britain not as a country in crisis, but as a society in crisis, where the financial problems with the pensions structure are just the tip of the iceberg. IDS, as Duncan Smith is known, believes that families are the building blocks of a healthy society. We can expect him to come up with some policies to give tax advantages to families.

IDS is an anti-poverty crusader and through the Centre for Social Justice he recently published a call for benefits reform that allowed people to continue receiving benefits for a short time after they continued working. Unfortunately given the current economic conditions what IDS is going to have to do is cut spending rather than increase it. The best he can do is change some allocations, but it is unlikely to meet the ambitions of his think tank. One thing that he is sure to go after is the penalty that sees couples that live together have less benefit entitlements than those that live apart – If Iain Duncan Smith ends this situation then it may well be at the expense of single parents.

We certainly have an interesting team at the pensions department and this is likely to be a very closely scrutinized area of the new government. Iain Duncan Smith once told the Conservative back benchers to ‘unite or die’ one wonders whether he will tell the British people to ‘save or starve’. That isn’t too far from reality as a result of the massive deficit that is running up. The National Employment Savings Trust is a first step to try to force low income earners to save more, but it needs to be kept on track so that the compounding effect can start working.