Stephen Timms has returned to his former role as pensions minister in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Timms, who was pensions minister between 2005 and 2006, won his seat in East Ham with a 51.7 per cent share of the vote, a decline from 77.8 per cent.
He has been an MP for East Ham since 1994 and first joined Tony Blair’s government as parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department of Social Security in 1998. He was promoted to minister of state in 1999.
Timms was appointed chief secretary to the treasury in 2006 where he served until 2007, departing following Gordon Brown’s cabinet reshuffle.
He was appointed minister for employment and welfare reform at the Department for Work and Pensions in 2008, later returning to his previous role as financial secretary to the Treasury the same year.
In a recent Work and Pension Committee debate held in May, Timms emphasised the success of auto-enrolment in increasing pension savings while warning of insufficient retirement incomes without higher contributions, saying “the amounts that people are saving under auto-enrolment are not enough for an adequate retirement income.”.
He recognised the gender pension gap, stating that it “remains much too big,” as well as dwindling savings among the self-employed. He also supports the idea of increasing UK economy investment from pension funds but cautions against prematurely closing defined benefit funds.
Timms also expressed concern over discretionary pension hikes, demanding oversight and measures to meet members’ expectations. He urged companies and authorities to follow ethical standards and implement long-term policies to solve these challenges.
Standard Life retirement savings director Mike Ambery says: “Pensions, retirement and savings is a complex brief so it’s great to have a Minister in post who has been following the issues so closely through the Work and Pensions Committee. Having the context around challenges like the lack of savings adequacy, the need to implement auto-enrolment reforms, the pension dashboard and small pots to name just a few of the issues, will be incredibly important to ensuring the government is able to move matters forward at pace.”
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