We no longer have a pensions system, just a mess caused by the Treasury

Back in the 1980s, when I was embarking on a lifetime of sweat, toil and tears in order to bring home the bacon, I lived in a pensions desert. I couldn’t see, feel or feed one (a pension, that is) for miles around.

During this decade, against a backdrop of privatisations, a rampant Prime Minister (Margaret Thatcher), Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Madonna’s virgins, I was privileged to work for four employers. A major chartered accountancy practice, a big and little publisher and a now defunct building society. Not one offered me the opportunity to save into a company pension.

At the time I wasn’t bothered – life was for living, a house (well, ok, a flat to be precise) had to be bought and the starting of a family was very much at the forefront of our minds (our being myself and wife Susan). I needed every penny my employers reluctantly paid me.