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Torsten Bell is the new Pensions Minister

Torsten Bell Appointed Pensions Minister

Image used under an Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence.

Torsten Bell has been appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Pensions) with responsibility for private and state pensions. 

The appointment follows the promotion of the previous Pensions Minister, Emma Reynolds, to the post of Economic Secretary to the Treasury. This in turn followed the resignation of Tulip Siddiq from that post.

As was the case with his predecessor, Mr Bell will have a joint ministerial role, serving in his Pensions Minister role within the Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) and as Parliamentary Secretary at HM Treasury. 

As we reported on 8 July 2024, Liz Kendall has overall responsibility for pensions in her role as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Who is Torsten Bell?

Mr Bell is the MP for Swansea West, and was elected for the first time on 4 July 2024. Aged 42, he spent ten years as head of the Resolution Foundation, an independent think-tank focused on improving the living standards of those on low-to-middle incomes. He previously served as a special adviser to Alistair Darling when he was Chancellor, and was Head of Policy under the then-Labour leader Ed Miliband.

Following his appointment, some media outlets focused on comments he made in a 2020 Resolution Foundation paper. He wrote that the State Pension triple lock is “not a sensible mechanism for pensions uprating” and argued for its replacement by a “smoothed earnings link”. 

Despite being an MP for just six months, he has spoken in Parliament on 19 occasions according to UK Parliament records. His first contribution after his appointment as Pensions Minister was in a debate following the government’s decision not to pay compensation relating to the change in women’s State Pension age - known as the WASPI women.

He said: “It would not be a reasonable or fair use of taxpayer money to pay compensation to people whose circumstances would be the same today even if the maladministration had never occurred. A compensation scheme would cost up to £10.5 billion, less than the scheme previously proposed but still a significant amount.

“The Ombudsman’s report acknowledges the cost and administrative burden of assessing the individual circumstances of 3.5 million women born in the 1950s. Indeed, it took the Ombudsman nearly six years to investigate just the six sample cases. To set up a scheme and invite 3.5 million women to set out their detailed personal circumstances would take years and thousands of staff.

“The fact remains that the vast majority of women knew that the State Pension age was increasing. Even for those who did not, we know that sending letters earlier would not have made a difference in most cases. Although I know that that decision will be disappointing, as we are hearing, and many have been frustrated by watching this debate drag on for years, we believe it is the right course of action.”

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