The UK pension system is traditionally seen as offering a good example to other countries,
having features such as a low social security burden of the public sector as well as a high coverage of
well-financed voluntary private schemes. But recent developments suggest that the model has shown
weaknesses. The most pressing current issue is underfunding of defined benefit occupational schemes
following the bear market; but there are also the ongoing crises of mis-selling of personal pensions and
the failure of Equitable Life insurance company. In this paper we seek to investigate whether there is
indeed a crisis and what the locus of the true crisis is. We find that there are important longer-term
weaknesses of the UK system as well as these current difficulties, focusing on social security as well
as private pensions. Pitfalls faced by UK policymakers offer important lessons to other countries
seeking to set up or expand private pension provision
