The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)

The UK is introducing a new pension called The National Employment Savings Trust, or NEST. This article looks at what this new pension is, and the reasons behind its introduction.

The National Employment Savings Trust is a scheme that is aimed at low income workers without adequate retirement provision. It is being rolled out by the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, and should be in place by 2012. The scheme will be run by employers.

This retirement plan is being introduced because the British Isles is facing a crisis in its pension planning. Over ten million people either have no pension, or an inadequate pension. And the national state pension is not going to have enough money to pay pensions in the future. This is because people are living longer that ever before and there are not enough workers to support the pensions of the elderly: government figures show that average life expectancy in the UK rose by five years for men and four years for women between 1980 and 2000.

With these pressures in play the government of the British Isles started investigating the issue and in 2005 it in had the independent Pensions Commission publish "A New Pension Settlement for the Twenty-First Century." This recommended a number of reforms that led to the Pensions Act 2007, and the Pensions Act 2008. From these came the plan for The National Employment Savings Trust.

So now we understand what this NEST is, and its history. We have to hope that it has a bright future.