21st April 2026
The UK pension system is built on a false idea: that savings and financial assets can guarantee security in old age. In this video, I argue that pensions do not ultimately depend on money saved in the past, but on the productive capacity of those still at work in the present. That is the real pension contract, and it is one the UK has steadily abandoned.
I explain how the state pension once reflected this collective responsibility, why Thatcher’s reforms changed the whole theory of pensions, and why the savings-based model now dominant in the UK is fundamentally detached from economic reality. I also explore why demographics, weak productive investment, and the financialisation of the economy mean that many pension promises may not be kept.
This is not just a technical problem. It is a political choice, and one that may leave millions exposed to insecurity in old age unless we confront it now.