The Pension Hole We Are In
In December 2002 the UK government called on its own "red", or if you like "grey", Adair to help it put a cap on the UK's pension problems.
Adair Turner, ex-CBI boss and head of the government's Pension Commission, will report on Tuesday on the scale of the nation's retirement savings shortfall.
Red Adair confronting a blazing oil well leaking billions of dollars of black gold had it easy by comparison.
Mr Turner is expected to say that the UK pensions system, once the envy of competitor nations, is withering away. The solutions are likely to be unpopular with politicians and public alike.
But under the Commission's remit, he need not make recommendations as to how the problem should be tackled until Autumn 2005.
Those recommendations could provide the bedrock for future pension legislation - after the next election.
Earlier this year, Mr Turner told the Investment Property Forum that he does not like to use the words crisis and pensions in the same sentence.
In 2003 the state pension was worth nearly 15 percent of average earnings
This will fall to 5 percent by 2050
People aged 65 to 74 get 68 percent of average income from pensions 25 percent of company final salary pension schemes shut to new staff in 2003
More than 50 percent of Britons think people should be forced to save for retirement provided employers contribute
Sources: Government Actuary's Department, National Association of Pension Funds and Association of British Insurers.
He told delegates: "There is a very big problem and we may need some significant responses."
His report will spell out out just how big the problem is.
Despite all the headlines screaming crisis, there has so far been no overarching review of where UK retirment provision is at. Mr Turner's job is to provide a sonar scan of the iceberg looming on the horizon.
Up until now, the public, employers and even pension policy planners have been given only brief glimpses of his findings.
"Mr Turner's team has been number crunching and pulling together lots of different strands from around the industry," said Helen McCarthy, head of pensions policy at the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
"This will help provide the first full overview of the state of retirement provision and should help spark debate."
That could be an understatement. Trade unions and Whitehall mandarins are gearing up for 'pensions in meltdown' headlines.
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