February 2020

05Feb

Pension inequality: Not enough is being done to close the wealth gap for women of colour in retirement

Since the dawn of auto-enrolment in 2012, the narrative from some in the corridors of power is that we have a pensions system which works for everybody. Not quite. While more than 10 million more workers have started saving over the past eight years, we still have a long way to go before we can argue with a straight face that the playing field for retirement saving is a level one. We now have more evidence about who the...

February 5, 2020
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01Feb

Measuring the ethnicity pensions gap

By The people´s pension Last year The People’s Pension examined in detail the drivers of the yawning gap in pension income between women and men, as the first part of a series examining the UK’s ‘under-pensioned’. Our second report focuses on another dramatically underpensioned group: ethnic minorities. New calculations by The People’s Pension reveal that the UK’s overall ethnicity pension gap – the percentage difference in pension income for pensioners who belong to an ethnic minority group compared to pensioners...

February 1, 2020
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January 2020

31Jan

UK. Brexit and pensions: everything you need to know

etirement savers will have to keep an eye on state pension payouts, the value of the pound and consumer protections now Brexit Day is here. The question on most people’s minds will be what it all means for them and their money. Read also UK’s ethnic minority pensioners are GBP3,350 a year worse off Pensions will be affected in a number of ways and, like all things when it comes to retirement, it will pay to be prepared. This is...

January 31, 2020
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31Jan

UK’s ethnic minority pensioners are GBP3,350 a year worse off

In the UK, the average pensioner from an ethnic minority is GBP3,350 a year worse off than other people their age, according to new analysis from The People’s Pension. The pension provider’s new report, Measuring the Ethnicity Pension Gap, highlights that the average ethnic minority pensioner’s income is 24.4 per cent less than their white counterpart. The divide is even greater from a gender perspective; on average, the gap in annual pension income between a female pensioner from...

January 31, 2020
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28Jan

UK. DWP publishes expat pension guidance ahead of Brexit

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that the UK state pension will be protected by the Withdrawal Agreement in new guidance examining the rights for UK nationals after the UK has left the EU. The guidance confirmed that UK nationals living in an EEA state or Switzerland by 31 December 2020 will be covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. The UK state pension will be uprated every year that an individual continues to live there, regardless of...

January 28, 2020
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27Jan

UK Pension Fund Brunel to Firms, Asset Managers: Tackle Climate or We’ll Drop You

Companies and asset managers must show progress towards climate goals by 2022, Brunel Pension Partnership, one of Britain's biggest pension fund managers, said on Monday, or the fund will withdraw its investment. Policymakers such as outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney are pushing investors to do more to ensure their portfolio choices help to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change, by limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5C. Brunel, which manages...

January 27, 2020
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27Jan

UK. FCA fined over pension scheme failures

The Pensions Regulator has fined the FCA £2,000 due to insufficient detail in its 2018 DC governance statement. This is the maximum fine The Pensions Regulator can issue for poor statements. Firms must submit an annual chair's statement which sets out how the scheme meets certain standards and obligations including information on the scheme’s default fund and its governance, the costs and charges applied, and the assessment of value for members. The fine was issued during Q3 2019, however...

January 27, 2020
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23Jan

UK. Pensions dashboards: Minister urges providers to get data in shape

Pensions minister Guy Opperman has urged companies to help pave the way for the dashboards – apps to help people keep track of their savings . The pensions dashboards will give people information about their pensions via a smartphone app, and have been billed as the solution to bring retirement money “into the digital age”. However, they require secure and accurate data from providers. Schemes will be forced to supply this under new laws, but Opperman said...

January 23, 2020
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21Jan

UK ‘leading’ European market for ESG investments

The UK is the 'leading European market' for environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related investments, with £6,439bn assets under management, according to joint research by Association of Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) and PwC Luxembourg. The joint report, Beyond their Borders: Evolution of foreign investments by pension funds, stipulated that European managers were taking the lead in applying ESG criteria to investments, with them expecting to observe 9.3 per cent growth from 2017 to 2025. The UK meanwhile is expected to...

January 21, 2020
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15Jan

Managing UK pensions risk: new Pensions Regulator powers and criminal offences

Following the general election, the government has reintroduced the Pension Schemes Bill (the ‘Bill’) into Parliament. The Bill includes a number of provisions which will significantly impact corporate activity involving groups with a UK defined benefit pension scheme. Two new criminal offences of ‘risking accrued scheme benefits’ and ‘avoidance of employer debt’ are proposed, each carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. The circumstances in which the Pensions Regulator (the 'Regulator') can make connected third parties (such...

January 15, 2020
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