Active Consensus-Building Needed for Retirement Savings Policy
The challenge for the Savings Forum meeting tomorrow is to identify a process which will achieve a consensus on
retirement savings policy, Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said today.
Politicians, employers and trade unions meet in Wellington at the Saving New Zealand Forum, being held to find a way to
increase private savings.
“The status quo will not achieve the development of the second-tier employment-based saving schemes which we need,” Ross
Wilson said.
“Working people are often struggling to pay personal debts, mortgages and student loans, and don’t feel they can afford
to save for their retirement,” he said.
The CTU supported law changes which would reduce prospectus requirements and allow tax on employer contributions to
retirement savings to be at the marginal tax rate.
“There needs to be a requirement for deductions to be made for retirement savings when employees ask for it,” Ross
Wilson said. “And employer contributions will be needed for any significant boost to employment-based retirement
savings.”