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Pat McFadden is taking over as work and pensions secretary from Liz Kendall, who will head up the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. UK Government/X.com
McFadden was Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator for the successful 2024 general election. Most recently, he was chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office after the PM - and minister for intergovernmental relations.
The MP for Wolverhampton South East will take on the role leading the Department for Work and Pensions at a time when multiple challenges may be coming to a head.
On private pensions, the government is trying to get wide-ranging legislation through parliament that, among others, would give it a controversial reserve power to mandate how defined contribution funds should invest.
The DWP recently launched a pensions commission that will make recommendations to improve the retirement outlook for future pensioners, especially for those on the lowest incomes and at the greatest risk of poverty or undersaving, with a final report due in 2027. Pensions minister Torsten Bell said in the summer that minimum auto-enrolment contributions will not increase during this parliament.
Meanwhile, an independent review of the state pension age is being carried out, against the backdrop of the Office for Budget Responsibility finding that the ‘triple lock’, the mechanism for uprating the state pension, will have cost three times more than projected by 2029. The triple lock is considered unsustainable by experts, but politicians across the spectrum fear the backlash against reducing the generosity of pensioner benefits.
A further issue facing the new work and pensions secretary is that the DWP is fighting a court battle with Women Against State Pension Age Inequality, campaigners for 1950s-born women who have challenged the government’s refusal to pay compensation for communicating a rise in women’s state pension age 28 months too late. A judicial review hearing is scheduled in December. Waspi has the support of several MPs.
Aside from these issues, the new secretary of state may also have to consider the impact of a row over disability benefit cuts, in which Labour’s own MPs forced the government into a humiliating U-turn.
Do you expect McFadden's appointment to make a difference for pensions policy?
