UK pensions: Charges for accessing pensions early to be capped as many who wish to use the pension freedoms face a fee for doing so January 19, 2016 Chancellor George Osborne has today announced that a limit on the amount that people can be charged for accessing their pension pot early will soon be introduced. Speaking in the House of Commons, Osborne said that nearly 700,000 of those who were eligible to use the pension freedoms rules, which came into effect in April last year, to gain access [...]
UK pensions: More than half would favour a move to a flat rate pensions tax relief scheme, but the pensions industry might struggle to adapt, warns pensions company January 19, 2016 More than half of pensions savers are in favour of a shift to flat rate pensions tax relief. A survey released today by pensions company Aegon discovered that 60 per cent of customers would favour a move to a flat rate of 33 per cent for pensions tax relief, which is currently applied at the same rate people [...]
FSCS is planning to levy £363m in the next financial year January 19, 2016 The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is expecting to levy £363m from the City in the next financial year, warning of a rise in pension claims. The final figure for the levy will be announced in April, and the plan is currently under consultation. However, the FSCS has indicated that it expects pensions savers – [...]
There’s nothing fair about burdening future generations with unfunded spending on pensioners January 19, 2016 Words like “fairness” and “justice” are regularly thrown around with little thought to what they mean. Strangely, though, the politicians who use them seem to be unwilling to debate the pressing issue of intergenerational justice relating to the unsustainable government promises being made to future generations. Nonsense, you might say. We often hear ministers and [...]
UK pensions: State pensions statements to go digital potentially as early as April, as service currently in public beta testing, says pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann January 18, 2016 Pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann has today said that statements for the state pension could potentially be digital from April onwards. Speaking in front of the Work and Pensions Select Committee regarding its inquiry into understanding the new state pension, Altmann revealed that the new digital system was currently in public beta testing and the Department for Work [...]
UK pensions: Industry reacts to hints flat rate pensions tax relief could be introduced by government at the March budget January 18, 2016 The tax relief available on pensions for higher rate taxpayers could be about to be slashed, as the government looks set to introduce a flat rate relief. The Financial Times has reported that chancellor George Osborne could announce in the upcoming March Budget that pensions tax relief, which is currently applied at the same rate [...]
UK Pensions: All open defined benefit pension schemes in the FTSE 250 could be gone by next year as employers struggle to turn their pension deficit into a surplus January 18, 2016 All open FTSE 250 defined benefit (DB) pension schemes could disappear within the next year, as employers struggle to keep pace with increasing liabilities. According to analysis released today by JLT Employee Benefits, DB pension provisions in the FTSE 250 have fallen by around 16 per cent in the last year. The total disclosed pension [...]
UK pensions: Baroness Ros Altmann to be grilled by MPs on Monday regarding the ongoing inquiry into understanding the new state pension January 17, 2016 Pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann will face questions from the Work and Pensions Select Committee tomorrow as part of an ongoing inquiry into understanding the new state pension. Last week, the Committee published an interim report, which warned that people were confused about when and how much they would receive under the new state pension [...]
UK pensions: new survey finds three in four small business owners say auto-enrolment puts too much pressure on their businesses January 12, 2016 Three in four small business owners say that the government’s new rules surrounding workplace pensions put “too much pressure” on businesses of their size, according to a new survey out today from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). After polling more than 1,000 small business owners in November and December, the FSB found that nearly [...]
UK pensions: People need to shop around for an annuity, as difference in rates at upper and lower end of the market for a standard annuity is 17 per cent January 11, 2016 An investment company has urged those purchasing an annuity to shop around, as it today revealed figures that showed the average annuity rate had dropped off in the last quarter. The analysis by Retirement Advantage found that the average annuity rate fell by 3.2 per cent in the final quarter of 2015, thanks in part [...]