Lord Adair Turner of Ecchinswell, a key figure in the transformation of the pension system in the United Kingdom, has been awarded this Thursday with the Jon Aldecoa Prize for Social Forecasting and Sustainability, granted by Loreto Mutua and Novaster. In his speech, he emphasized the urgency of "building a broad political and social consensus" to undertake a stable reform of the system and promote savings for retirement from an early age.
The recognition, which reaches its sixth edition, values Turner's contribution to the promotion of social forecasting and, in particular, his leadership at the head of the British Pension Commission between 2003 and 2006.
Loreto Mutua and Novaster highlight that Lord Turner's proposals support a reform that included automatic enrollment or 'auto-enrolment', through which employees are automatically integrated into an employment pension plan. This figure was approved in 2008 and began to operate in 2012.
Since the implementation of this mechanism, the enrollment of workers in pension plans in Great Britain has increased from 55% in 2012, about 10.7 million people, to 89% in 2024, with 21.7 million employees enrolled, according to official data from the Department for Work and Pensions.
In his speech, Lord Turner expressed his gratitude for the Jon Aldecoa Prize and recalled the work done between 2003 and 2006 to promote the reform of the British pension system. He stressed that this process, based on "consensus, dialogue, and analysis," has allowed, in his opinion, to establish a structural and lasting reform.
Automatic mechanisms and savings culture
Turner highlighted the relevance of automatic instruments such as 'auto-enrolment' and incorporating elements that facilitate the extension of retirement savings to a broader spectrum of the citizenry.
The British economist also insisted on the convenience of starting to save from an early age to take advantage of the cumulative effect of compound interest, relating this aspect to the culture of saving and the improvement of financial education.
The award ceremony, which reinforces the commitment to more robust and sustainable social security systems, has been preceded by a panel titled "The Future of Pensions: From the International Context to the Spanish Case. Lessons and Proposals for Our Future Well-being." It featured the head of Pensions and Insurance of the OECD, Pablo Antolín; the former manager and former chief economist of the World Bank, Blanca Moreno-Dodson, and the deputy director of FEDEA, professor and member of the Economic and Social Council, Ignacio Conde-Ruiz.
During the debate, the experts agreed on the need to "give greater visibility to complementary social security models linked to employment." In this area, they highlighted that the mutual model offers a collective long-term savings formula linked to employment, based on independent management, adjusted costs, and the total return of benefits to the mutual members, who also participate in the governance of the entity.