King’s College London math expert receive £300,000 Nuffield Grant

John Armstrong, Reader in Financial Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics, will work alongside the Pension Policy Institute (PPI) to investigate how collective defined contribution (CDC) pension schemes can be implemented in the UK.

CDC pension schemes are a new approach to pensions which aim to allow members to achieve better pension outcomes through risk-sharing, without having to rely on an employer’s guarantee that said members will receive a fixed return.

This follows on from a previous 2022 report published by King’s and the PPI entitled ‘CDC: International Insights’, which looked at how these particular pension schemes needed to look at the issue of ‘pension choice’ if they to work in the UK.

International CDC schemes benefit from legislation that ensures that all members of a workplace must be enrolled in a pension scheme. This is not the case in the UK, as the law mandates that all investors in a pension scheme must be able to opt out. Therefore, while international CDC schemes have been able to take a one-size-fits all approach, a different process is required in the UK.

The research paper funded by this latest grant, ‘Collective defined contribution pensions with investment choice’ will help develop new policy approaches to ensure that the potential benefits of CDC can be delivered in the UK.

It is hard to overstate the importance of a good pension to making the most of your retirement, so it is very exciting to be leading a project that we hope will lead to better pension outcomes for people in the UK.”

John Armstrong, Department of Mathematics
The project is due to start in October 2023.