ABSTRACT
The longer-term impact of Labour’s pension reforms in this period will be debated for some time to come. Some scholars have argued that their policies were a continuation of neo-liberal policies that had been introduced in the 1980s (Price 2008), whereas Bridgen (2010) has disagreed with this view arguing instead that Labour’s reforms represented a clear and significant shift in a social democratic direction. The partial acceptance of some of the Turner Commission’s recommendations open up Labour’s record to debate. Labour did not fully implement Turner’s support for state pensions becoming based upon residency rather than employment orientated contributions. However, by reducing the number of years to qualify for a full state pension to 30 for men and women, Labour did manipulate the system into becoming close to universal in terms of coverage if not universal in principle.
