Greece and its creditors’ disagreements: Pensions, VAT and budget deficit will be the sticking points June 23, 2015 The challenging negotiations between Greece and its international creditors may well be entering the final throes – but no one is kidding themselves that the saga is over just yet. Although the latest proposals appear to be paving the way forward, there are three main sticking points – pensions, VAT and government spend against receipts [...]
Act now to avoid the Tories’ pension tax grab June 18, 2015 The chancellor has announced an “emergency” Budget for 8 July. On the basis of the new government’s Queen’s Speech, which saw little by way of surprises, the expectation is that there will be nothing much in the Budget to concern investors. Public spending cuts will continue, the government has already committed not to increase the [...]
Chancellor puts pressure on pension providers with FCA to launch review June 17, 2015 The government is considering imposing a legal cap on the amount savers are charged to withdraw money from their pensions, chancellor George Osborne has said. Standing in for Prime Minister David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) yesterday, Osborne said that Treasury is consulting to make sure that people are not charged excessive early exit [...]
Osborne will have to face up to Britain’s pensioners if he wants to tackle debt June 17, 2015 George Osborne promised last week to legally bind future governments into lowering debt. Thanks to one of his own policies, that debt ambition will be much harder to meet unless reforms are undertaken today. The problem is the “triple lock” on the basic State Pension, the main benefit for retired people which is received by [...]
A third of pensions don’t qualify for George Osborne’s “pensions revolution” June 17, 2015 A third of pensions don't qualify for new rules which allow savers to withdraw their entire pension pots, it's been reported. The investigation by the Daily Mail found as many as six million policies could be "hard to cash in", including 2.29m final salary pensions. More than half that figure is public sector pensions, while insurance [...]
Budget 2015: Institute of Chartered Accountants says George Osborne should simplify taxes June 15, 2015 The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is calling upon chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne to simplify the tax code in his forthcoming summer Budget. With the Conservative Budget just three weeks away, the ICAEW said today that the government’s previously-announced plans to cut red tape and reduce costs to British [...]
The UK’s first national steel strike in 30 years could happen this month after Unite schedules Tata Steel action for June 22 June 8, 2015 The UK is facing its first national steel strike for 30 years, after union members voted for action against Tata Steel. Unite the union announced today the strike – agreed last week – would go ahead on June 22. It is part of an ongoing dispute over pensions, with the manufacturer telling workers [...]
Think you will retire on £42,000 a year? That’ll be £1m up front… May 17, 2015 Britain’s workers are chronically unprepared for retirement, a new report by one of the UK’s biggest life insurers reveals today, with just seven per cent putting in enough money to meet their expectations. The research, conducted by Watermelon on behalf of Aegon, found a vast gap between the amount of money people expect to receive [...]
Just Retirement diversifies after pension reform May 12, 2015 Just Retirement yesterday reported a 22 per cent fall in sales over nine months, but said demand for its newer products had protected it from a harsher knock from British pension rule changes. Pension changes, announced last March, mean people who are retiring no longer need to buy an interest-bearing annuity with their pension savings. [...]
Standard Life assets rise in face of pensions and annuities reforms April 29, 2015 The figures Standard Life's assets under administration rose by five per cent to £311.9bn in the first quarter, as the savings and assets manager flexed its muscle in the face of new UK laws allowing savers to cash in their pension annuities. Third party net inflows of £3.7bn – 73 per cent of which came [...]