David Davison is happy that CFG (formally CFDG) is wading into the charity pensions discussion.

It’s great to see the Charity Finance Group picking up the baton on pensions issues and encouraging Steve Webb to commit to a fundamental review of the pension issues faced by third sector organisations.

This importance of this issue is finally being recognised to a great extent driven by the unfortunate circumstances facing the Wedgwood Museum. The issue was highlighted a couple of weeks ago by Lord Flight in the House of Lords, although unfortunately rejected on behalf of the government by Baroness Rawlings.

The problem is that to a great extent the Wedgwood case has muddied the waters as it has highlighted only one of issues - namely last man standing and the government response unfortunately reflects this. However, there are a number of issues at play for charities and their pension provision - the inequity and inflexibility of section 75, restructuring complexities, the differences between connected and unconnected employers, the likely worsening of the position as a result of auto-enrolment, ensuring adequate member protection, to name but a few. To just exempt charities from the rules is unfortunately not the answer.

In December 2011 the DWP, in the output from it's consultation on Section 75, recognised that there was an issue and concluded that "the government would want to carry out a further consultation."

The government needs to stop dragging its heels and get on with this consultation as only then can all the issues be identified, their impact assessed and alternative proposals identified. This is a highly pressing issue for the third sector and it needs to be addressed now and hopefully the increased profile which help to achieve this.