Pensioners hit with £8bn tax bill after government freezes allowances Personal Finance Pensioners paid some £8bn in extra tax last year after a freeze on personal allowances dragged people into higher bands, new figures have revealed. The amount of tax paid by people in retirement climbed from £21.1bn to £29.8bn, an increase of over 40 per cent in just two years, according to the latest pension participation [...]
Making the jump to self-employment could damage your pension savings Personal Finance Employees making the leap into self-employment could put their retirement at risk, with many unlikely to continue saving into a pension upon leaving auto-enrolment. Roughly one in five self-employed workers save into a private pension, compared with around four in five employees, leaving those working for themselves at greater risk of having insufficient savings upon [...]
Government sets out conditions for unlocking ‘trapped capital’ in defined benefit pension schemes Personal Finance The government has published a consultation setting out conditions on freeing ‘trapped’ capital from defined benefit pension schemes, in a bid to keep pace with the rapidly changing pension landscape and free up greater amounts of capital. The consultation, published on Wednesday by the Department of Work and Pensions, set out plans to give trustees [...]
‘Unnecessary bureaucratic hoops’: Pension savers fall victim to outdated scam safeguards June 8, 2026 The government’s pension scam safeguards have been called into question after only a minority of transfers flagged as potential scams were found to be genuinely high-risk, slowing savers’ transfer process. Of the 51,417 amber flags on pensions since November 2021, just 18 per cent were found to relate to high-risk investments or other flagged categories, [...]
Cliff-edge warning: Fewer than 10 per cent of Brits to achieve a comfortable retirement June 3, 2026 Large numbers of Brits are at risk of facing a retirement ‘cliff edge’ as people fail to save enough to achieve a moderate or comfortable retirement. For someone living on their own, a comfortable lifestyle would require an annual income of £45,400, a level only nine per cent of Brits are on track to hit, [...]
Pension master trusts join forces to tackle outdated transfer systems June 2, 2026 Eight pension master trusts have joined forces in a bid to improve the pension transfer system following uproar over its outdated and sluggish practices. The group, dubbed Pathfinder, brings together trusts including Nest, Smart Pension and People’s Pension, which represent over £162.7bn in funds under management and 14.5m savers. It aims to examine the current [...]
Ask the expert: Is £500k enough to retire? May 13, 2026 Fidelity personal finance specialist Marianna Hunt is back to help a reader who wants to know if they have enough in their portfolio to not only retire but to live the lifestyle they want. Q. I’m 55 and have built up a portfolio worth around £500,000 – split across pensions and ISAs. I’ve also paid [...]
Pension ping pong: Now government backtracks on mandation powers April 22, 2026 The government has been forced to water down controversial mandation powers in the Pension Schemes Bill after prolonged uproar from the pensions industry and opposition MPs and peers. Pensions minister Torsten Bell has tried to push through the bill with a clause that gives ministers the power to force funds to invest in UK infrastructure [...]
Retiring abroad could lose Brits over £70,000 with state pension at risk April 13, 2026 British pensioners eyeing a retirement in the sun could see thousands wiped off their state pension, top financial planners have warned. Brits planning to retire overseas during this tax year could forgo more than £77,000 in state pension income over the next 20 years, if they opt to move to a country where payments are [...]
‘Ridiculous’: Torsten Bell under fire over pension schemes bill April 2, 2026 London’s pension industry is in uproar over government proposals to keep what is known as ‘backstop power’ over the precise level of investment from funds in specific UK assets. Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, has become the focus of anger at Whitehall’s attempts to exert a degree of control over where some of the biggest [...]