The 2006 Mini-Public on National Pensions Debate and National Pensions Day was sponsored by the Department of Works and Pensions. Its goal was to “rais[e] awareness of the pension challenges facing society" and understand "public views on [...] reform to the UK pension system.”
Problems and Purpose
Background History and Context
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
This project brought together 1075 participants for small group discussions as well as a question-and-answer session about the so-called “Turner Report”, which came out earlier in the year suggesting great changes to the pension system. The National Pensions Debate was comprised of several elements as follows:
- Two regional deliberative events, lasting a full day
- The ‘National Pensions Day’ where six simultaneous deliberative events, linked up by satellite, were held at various locations around the UK
- A self-completion questionnaire available online and on paper
- Devolved listening exercises, undertaken by stakeholder organisations
- In addition, a ‘Citizens Panel’ of 12 people was recruited, who were consulted throughout the event development process and used to ‘road-test’ all materials and discussion guides.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The process and its results were published in a report, which includes the voting results and people’s judgments on government’s policy ideas. Lewis (DWP Minister) noted "[i]t was enormously successful and welcomed by participants. Its conclusions are reflected in the White Paper and I think this was a real example of government not just sitting there in an old-fashioned way thinking, “Write to us if you have anything to say.” We went out. I went personally and hosted the one in Newcastle Upon Tyne. We went out actively to seek input and views from the population."[1] A pension bill was presented to parliament in November of 2006, which reflected some of the views that were presented in the debate. This became the Pension Act of 2007, which became the Pension Act of 2008, which was set to go into action in 2012. It is impossible to ascertain how much influence the events had on the Pension Act.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See Also
References
[1] House of Commons (2006). Minutes of Evidence: Department for Work and Pensions: Using Leaflets to Communicate with the Public About Services and Entitlements. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmpubacc/uc1202-i/uc120202.htm
External Links
Notes
This entry is based on the POLITICIZE dataset. More information can be found at the following links:
- Paulis, Emilien; Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Panel, Sophie; Vittori, Davide; Close, Caroline, 2020, "POLITICIZE Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Z7X6GT, Harvard Dataverse, V1
- Pilet J-B, Paulis E, Panel S., Vitori D & Close C. 202X The POLITICIZE Dataset: an inventory of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs) in Europe. European Political Science.