March 2020

06Mar

UK. PLSA Calls for Pensions to Hold Companies Accountable for Climate Change

In its updated annual stewardship and voting guide, the UK’s Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), whose members are responsible for approximately £1 trillion ($1.28 trillion) in pension assets, said plan investors need to hold the directors of the companies they invest in accountable for the way they manage climate change risks. The guidelines are intended to be a resource to provide pension trustees with practical guidance when considering how to exercise their votes at annual general meetings. The...

March 6, 2020
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06Mar

BBC coronavirus UK warning: Pensioners face ‘rapid increase’ in risk of death from illness

Sir Patrick Vallance outlined that the mortality rate of COVID-19 cases for people over the age of 80 is around eight percent, he then contrasted this with the mortality rate for children under which is "essentially zero". The Government chief scientific adviser stated that this was due to the likelihood of people over the age of 80 to have co-existing illnesses in comparison to any other demographic. Sir Patrick Vallance said: "Older people are vulnerable to all sorts of...

March 6, 2020
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05Mar

UK. Record Numbers Saving into Workplace Pensions

More than three-quarters of British employees are now members of a workplace pension scheme, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics. And for the first time, occupational defined contribution (DC) pensions have overtaken all other types of pension, including defined benefit (DB) or final salary schemes. The proportion of employees in a workplace pension hit 77%, the highest since comparable records began in 1997 – it marks a huge advance on the 47% in these schemes...

March 5, 2020
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03Mar

UK. Pension transfer market needs regulation, says industry

Ministers are facing calls to give powers to regulators to supervise the corporate pension transfer market after claims that companies are pressuring employees to quit their valuable retirement schemes. Senior figures in the pension industry said a voluntary code of practice that is meant to prevent abuses by employers was no longer working. The concerns centre on how employers have the ability to initiate exercises under which workers who are members of their defined benefit pension schemes can swap...

March 3, 2020
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February 2020

28Feb

UK. Pensions take hit as FTSE loses £152billion in four days due to coronavirus

PENSION savings took a battering yesterday after billions of pounds were wiped off the stock market in the wake of the growing coronavirus outbreak. The London Stock Exchange dropped to a new 13-month low as the spread of Covid-19 hit markets around the world and traders warned that it could lead to “anaemic global growth”.  The FTSE 100 blue-chip index has lost £152billion in the past four days – a fall of 8.2 percent so far this week, shedding £62billion yesterday. It...

February 28, 2020
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26Feb

UK. The rising cost of care

What does the chart show? The disposable incomes of pensioners aged 65 to 74 after direct taxes are likely to increase by 1.9 per cent a year over the next 10 years — to give an average annual income of £41,500. However, with the average weekly cost of nursing care for self-funders at £1,035, the majority of retired households requiring these services cannot afford to pay the annual fees of £53,820 out of their income, according to research by Irwin...

February 26, 2020
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25Feb

UK pensions: New plan to auto enrol teen workers

The Government will outline plans to allow employees to join workplace pension schemes from 18 instead of 22 this week, to build on the success of auto-enrolment. Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey will applaud the scheme for boosting the number of people in retirement savings schemes and reversing years of falling participation rates.  She will add that in order to build on its success, the Government will lower the eligibility age for joining a workplace scheme.  The lower earnings...

February 25, 2020
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25Feb

R3 To Provide Blockchain Identity Solutions To Help Recover $48B In Unclaimed Pensions

Blockchain technology provider, R3 has revealed that it is working on offering pension companies with the requisite technology to develop fresh identity solutions built on blockchain which could enable savers to recoup part or all of $48 billion worth of lost pension pots in the UK, CoinDesk reports. The head of R3’s digital identity unit, Abbas Ali, pension services providers are set to debut their solo solutions that will use R3 tech within this year. According to a study...

February 25, 2020
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21Feb

Staff in 74 UK universities start 2-week strike over pensions

Up to 50,000 staff members in 74 universities across Britain started a 14-day strike on Thursday over disputes on pension, pay and working conditions. Members of the University and College Union (UCU), including lecturers, technicians, librarians and other academic and support staff, are joining the industrial action between Feb. 20 and March 13, potentially affecting 1.2 million students. The UCU said 50,000 of its members will take the action over workloads, pay, a 15 percent gender pay gap,...

February 21, 2020
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20Feb

UK. Pension schemes to share scams intelligence online

The Pension Scams Industry Group is working with anti-fraud organisation Cifas to launch a network of open-source information on suspicious companies and pension arrangements, which specialists say could be an important step in bringing scams under control. The project will allow network members to post concerns about companies and advisers they believe may be acting inappropriately or fraudulently, collecting details on arrangements including names, telephone numbers and addresses. Not-for-profit Cifas has already completed similar work in the banking sector,...

February 20, 2020
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