General Electric to freeze $14bn pension pot for 2,700 UK staff June 10, 2021 General Electric Co will freeze pension benefits for around 2,700 UK employees from January 2022 and take a related charge, the company announced today. GE’s pension benefit obligation in the UK was about $14bn at the end of 2020. GE’s pension plan has been closed to new entrants in the UK since September 2011. At [...]
A third of gig economy couriers and delivery drivers have no savings June 9, 2021 Around 30 per cent of gig economy drivers, riders and couriers across Europe had no savings in the first half of 2021. Almost half of the 10,000 workers surveyed had experienced a claimable event such as an accident. Of these, only 12 per cent had actually made a claim and 69 per cent had a [...]
BlackRock takes over £21bn of BA pension scheme assets June 2, 2021 British Airways has handed the management of £21bn worth of pension assets to Blackrock in a bespoke deal between the airline and the asset manager. The agreement encompasses the assets directly under management for BA’s Airways Pension Scheme (APS) and New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS), which serve 85,000 members and until now have been managed [...]
Cash clueless: Nearly half of Brits don’t know what an overdraft or mortgage is May 24, 2021 A new study has found that more than one in four people in the UK don’t feel confident when it comes to handling their personal finances. The research, carried out by debt management company Lowell and shared with City A.M. this evening, found that just a third of people claim to feel “very confident” when handling [...]
Sunday Times Rich List: Who are the UK’s wealthiest women? May 21, 2021 The lack of women in the boy’s club of billionaires was loud and clear in the Sunday Times Rich List released, so where and who are the UK’s wealthiest women? Bet365’s Denise Coates, who leads the online gambling company after re-mortgaging her father’s chain of betting shops to raise the cash to expand her website, [...]
Pension transfer scam crackdown risks delaying thousands of transfers May 14, 2021 The government tabled proposals to tackle pension scheme fraud today, but it could risk blocking or delaying thousands of legitimate transfers, AJ Bell’s chief executive has warned. The plans outlined by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could push providers to ask people transferring to a pension scheme not on the government-approved ‘safe destination’ [...]
BT: Investors unenthused by £2bn pension funding deal as shares drop 6.3 per cent May 13, 2021 BT today announced plans to bring full-fibre broadband to an extra 5m homes as the financial burden of its pension deficit eased. The telecoms firm struck a new deal for its pension, which is one of the biggest in the country at £7.98bn. Some £2bn of deficit will be met through an asset-backed funding arrangement [...]
HMRC repays overtaxed pensioners £716m in six years April 30, 2021 Savers overtaxed on pension freedom withdrawals have reclaimed £716m since 2015, when changes were introduced that allowed savers to flexibly access their pensions. The overtaxation occurs when someone accesses their retirement ‘flexibly’ for the first time in a tax year – which can include taking income via drawdown or withdrawing ad-hoc lump sums – HMRC [...]
Boost for first-time buyers as more ultra-low deposit mortgages hit the market April 24, 2021 In a further boost to first-time buyers, more lenders are bringing 5 per cent deposit mortgages onto the market. New deals announced by Metro Bank and Cambridge Building Society are not part of a new government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme which was launched this week to increase the availability of 5 per cent deposit loans. Major [...]
Barclaycard defends decision to cut customers’ credit limits by 95 per cent April 20, 2021 Barclaycard has defended cutting some customers’ credit limits after a backlash from people complaining they had been reduced by over 95 per cent. Some customers complained that their limits had been significantly reduced despite having never missed a payment. It was pointed out that Barclaycard had made the reductions at a time when some people [...]