Royal London profit rises after new business sales August 8, 2025 Royal London reported strong profit growth in the first half of the year after an increase in new business sales. The insurance company recorded a 15 per cent rise in pre-tax profit to £166m, compared to £144m in 2024, crediting its higher business sales and bulk purchase annuity buy ins. The group completed eight BPA [...]
Pension Commission is an attempt to diffuse UK’s ticking pensions time bomb July 28, 2025 Our pensions system is a ticking time bomb that could detonate within a generation. The Pension Commission will try to defuse it, writes Alastair King.
Labour revives Pensions Commission amid fears workers are saving too little July 21, 2025 Ministers are to resurrect the Pensions Commission amid fears that today’s workers face a greater risk of poverty in retirement than their parents. Experts have warned that people looking to retire in 2050 are on course to receive £800 per year less than current pensioners. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said 45 per [...]
Keir Starmer refuses to rule out pension tax raid July 16, 2025 Prime Minister Keir Starmer shied away from ruling out a pensions tax raid at the Autumn Budget despite top researchers’ calls for the government to refrain from adding ever-higher cost burdens on Britons. Keir Starmer has faced repeated questions about several taxes being introduced later this year given City estimates that as much as £24bn [...]
Kemi Badenoch backs costly triple lock pension as ‘Conservative policy’ July 10, 2025 Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has doubled down in her backing of the triple lock pension after the UK’s fiscal watchdog said its costs on the state had soared far higher than expected. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned this week that the Labour government could not afford the triple lock pension along with other [...]
Scottish Widows owner: Pension funds deal risks making UK like China July 7, 2025 Labour’s flagship deal with pension funds risks making the UK economy more like China, the boss of Lloyds Banking Group has warned after its subsidiary Scottish Widows chose not to sign up to the agreement. Chancellor Rachel Reeves won the support of 17 pension funds which agreed to invest at least five per cent of [...]
State pension could face insolvency by 2036 despite tax hikes July 6, 2025 Britain’s state pension could become financially unsustainable as early as 2036, despite recent increases in National Insurance contributions, according to new modelling by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI). The think tank warned the Treasury is on course to spend more on welfare payouts than it receives in National Insurance receipts within just over a decade. [...]
Labour urged to scrap state pension triple lock July 2, 2025 The government should scrap the £145bn triple lock on the state pension and employers should automatically contribute to private pensions, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. Labour’s election manifesto last year said it would commit to keeping the state pension, while the Conservative Party pitched a ‘triple lock plus’ pension that would increase [...]
Reeves told Lifetime ISAs rules are ‘nonsensical’ and costing savers June 30, 2025 Lifetime ISAs require deep reform, as strict rules on cash withdrawals mean customers are left with less money than they initially deposited, leading Britons to make worse investment decisions, while the government sets aside too much spending for bonuses, senior MPs have told Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Reeves is a fortnight away from her flagship Mansion [...]
The investment industry has three asks for Reeves’ Mansion House speech June 26, 2025 The investment industry is listening to the Reeves’ rallying cry for growth, but there are three things we need to make it happen, says Chris Cummings In just over two weeks’ time the Chancellor will deliver her Mansion House address to the financial services sector. It is an important moment for government to demonstrate progress [...]