October 2020

29Oct

UK. Pensions Dashboards delayed until 2023

The long-awaited roll-out of Pensions Dashboards has been pushed back to 2023 – four years after the initial deadline for the scheme. Pensions Dashboards will allow savers to view all their various pension pots in one place – including the government pension, workplace pensions and any private pensions. Read also UK pension funds to boost renewables, survey finds Currently savers have to look at these pots separately, which can make it difficult to keep track. Read also UK. DWP launches ‘Stronger Nudge’ plans...

October 29, 2020
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28Oct

UK. DWP launches ‘Stronger Nudge’ plans to boost Pension Wise usage

Pension Wise is a public website/service set up by government to help people understand their pensions and seek additional guidance if needed. Today, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched plans to boost pension guidance take up by "nudging" people towards the help available. Pension assets can be notoriously confusing and tricky to manage given their complexity and rules which change from scheme to scheme. To address these issues, the government set up Pension Wise in 2015...

October 28, 2020
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26Oct

UK pension funds to boost renewables, survey finds

Pension funds in the UK are set to increase their investments in renewable energy as the sector draws investors with attractive returns, says a survey of 50 pension fund investors by Pureprofile and real estate investment firm Alpha Real Capital. The survey found that nearly 70% of pension funds plan to increase their allocations to renewables over the next five years, while 10% expect to cut their positions. Some 74% of pension funds surveyed already invest in the...

October 26, 2020
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26Oct

Young people in the UK expect to retire before turning 64

On average, young people between the ages of 18 and 34, expect to retire at the age of 63 and eight months, while one in eight are looking to retire by 55, new data has shown. A survey by Opinium for investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown said that in contrast, those over 55 expect to retire on average at 67 and 11 months, with 20% aiming to stop work after 70. The current average age of retirement in the UK...

October 26, 2020
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23Oct

The Changing Nature of Work and Public Pension Coverage: Evidence from the US and Europe

By Axel H. Börsch-Supan, Courtney Coile, Jonathan Cribb, Carl Emmerson, Yuri Pettinicchi We examine non-standard work and its impact on pension coverage via a case study of the US, the UK, and Germany. We find that the share of workers engaged in non-standard work has changed only modestly over time in these three countries, despite the popular perception that a more significant transformation in the nature of work may be underway. We discuss how non-standard work may affect public...

October 23, 2020
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23Oct

UK. The Pensions Regulator issues guidance on £170bn pension ‘superfunds’

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published new guidance for trustees and employers on transferring to defined benefit (DB) ‘superfunds’, as PwC research suggests up to one million pension scheme members and £170bn of assets could take this route over the next decade DB superfunds offer a way for employers to consolidate existing schemes, by replacing the sponsoring employer with a capital-backed vehicle or a special purpose vehicle (SPV). They create a large retirement savings fund which includes different company...

October 23, 2020
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22Oct

UK. COVID-19 will bring forward the date when the pensions triple lock is unpicked

Today’s figures from the ONS show that inflation in the year to September was just 0.5%. September is usually particularly important as the increase in prices over the year to that point is conventionally used in calculating how benefits and state pensions are to be uprated in the following April. Read also UK. The Pensions Regulator issues guidance on £170bn pension ‘superfunds’ For the basic state pension and the new state pension current Government policy is triple lock indexation, which means that payments...

October 22, 2020
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20Oct

Govt seeks to overturn Pension Schemes Bill amendment defeats

The government is seeking to overturn the four Pension Schemes Bill amendment votes it lost in the House of Lords in the summer by removing them from the bill. In a House of Commons Notices of Amendments publication, Pensions Minster, Guy Opperman, outlined the removal of the House of Lords’ amendments. The amendments relate to commercial pensions dashboards, transaction facilities on dashboards, reporting on fairness to members of collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes, and open defined benefit (DB) schemes...

October 20, 2020
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19Oct

UK. Covid-19 has exposed the catastrophic impact of privatising vital services

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the catastrophic fallout of decades of global privatisation and market competition. When the pandemic hit, we saw hospitals being overwhelmed, caregivers forced to work with virtually no protective equipment, nursing homes turned into morgues, long queues to access tests, and schools struggling to connect with children confined to their homes. People were being urged to stay at home when many had no decent roof over their heads, no access to water and sanitation, and...

October 19, 2020
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16Oct

UK. What the amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill could mean in the battle against fraud

During the maelstrom of seven months of Covid-19, we’ve grown used to hearing about a select number of reoccurring concerns, one of which is the menace of pensions fraud. Although pensions fraud is not a new phenomenon, there has been growing concern that the environment of uncertainty created by the global pandemic is enabling ruthless scammers even more freedom to wreak their misery. Barely a week has gone by without there being a round of headlines relating to the...

October 16, 2020
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