If you crave universal popularity it's probably best that you never apply for the post of pensions minister. As reaction to news that the pensions commissioner may suggest raising the state retirement age to 67 has shown, taking bold measures to solve the pensions crisis is likely to win you a host of critics.
But if you would relish the challenge of ending pensioner poverty, a new website is giving you the chance to do just that. Visitors to www.worksmart.org.uk/pensionsminister can try their hand at being pensions minister for the day – and find out just who they could upset with their policy choices.
The leaks from Adair Turner's reports – due out next week – suggest that alongside an increase in the retirement age, the pensions tsar will recommend higher basic state pensions and the introduction of a savings account which employees must opt out of, not in to. The website gives you the chance to decide whether to adopt all or any of these approaches, and whether to go for compulsory savings and an overhaul of the second state pension.
You may find that the policies you think will be most effective in closing the pensions gap are those which have the least support in the UK at large, or that a careful mix will keep just about everyone on side. But as John Hutton would no doubt confirm, it's going to be impossible to please everyone.
