September 2018

04Sep

UK. Union call for pension funds clean-up over links to Donald Trump’s migrant camps

UNISON has proposed a merger of pension pots and the creation of a new ethical investment unit. The call comes after The Sunday Post revealed £138 million of Scottish workers’ pension cash was being used to bankroll the US President’s immigration detention centres. The funds are managed by global finance firms with huge investments in GEO Group and CoreCivic, America’s largest private prison operators. Strathclyde Pension Fund, which manages pension funds for 230,000 public service workers, has £52m invested. Lothian Pension Fund, with...

September 4, 2018
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03Sep

UK. Tax relief on pensions serves to enrich the wealthy. That must change

Pensions tax relief is a juicy morsel for the chancellor should he find a way to make it benefit the exchequer. Even a small slice of the £38bn spent each year subsidising pension saving could help thousands of schools and hundreds of hospitals that would otherwise be starved of cash. A £10bn saving is not outside the bounds of possibility, and that is without even shaking the system to its foundations. All Philip Hammond needs to do in his autumn...

September 3, 2018
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August 2018

30Aug

UK. Pensions: don’t cash out of defined benefits, warns regulator

Pension schemes are being warned they may be being too generous when offering cash lump sums to people considering transferring out of their gold-plated deals. A letter sent by the Pensions Regulator to defined benefit (DB) pension schemes suggests that trustees think about whether they should cut the amounts on offer for workers leaving the pension scheme. The letter has been sent to 14 schemes where the regulator is aware there has been a particular increase in transfer requests from members....

August 30, 2018
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29Aug

Theresa May In Africa: The Future Of Fintech In South Africa, Nigeria And Kenya

A delegation of UK fintech specialists joined Prime Minister Theresa May on her first official trip to Africa and will visit South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya to meet with entrepreneurs to establish trading and export ties in these emerging markets. Representatives from Azimo, the Financial Conduct Authority, Standard Chartered, Farm.ink, the London Stock Exchange Group and the Prime Minister’s Ambassador for Fintech were just some of the 29 leaders that accompanied May on the trip in order to forge connections...

August 29, 2018
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29Aug

UK. ‘Give savers a bonus’ to prevent pension poverty

Millions of people have been put off saving for their retirement by the “incomprehensible” pension tax relief system, the think tank argues. It urges Chancellor Philip Hammond to scrap pension tax relief and replace it with a bonus system which would reward savers for building up funds for old age. Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann, a campaigner on retirement issues, last night warned that millions face poverty in old age unless the report’s warnings are heeded. “If we do not incentivise people...

August 29, 2018
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28Aug

UK. Councillor slams ‘inappropriate’ investment in tobacco industry to fund local authority pension schemes

This is despite the efforts of council chiefs all over the region to cut the number of smokers - and their cost to health services and local authorities. The pension fund covers retirement schemes for employees of Sunderland City Council, South Tyneside Council, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Council, as well as other organisations, and - as of March 31 - was worth £8.24billion. The choice of investments was originally revealed by a series of freedom of information...

August 28, 2018
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27Aug

UK. Crackdown to safeguard pensions when firms go bust

Directors who have dissolved companies to avoid paying workers or pensions could be disqualified or fined by authorities for the first time. The move is part of a government initiative to safeguard workers, pensions and small suppliers when a company goes bust. The Observer reported in January that the government was preparing to crack down on irresponsible company bosses in the wake of the collapse of Carillion. The construction and outsourcing giant went into liquidation with a deficit in its...

August 27, 2018
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24Aug

UK. Britons living in EU could lose access to UK bank services in no-deal Brexit

In a document detailing contingency planning if Britain leaves the EU in March with no transition deal, the government said unilateral action on several fronts could only minimise disruption up to a point. While Britons will still be able to use their bank cards to withdraw money in EU countries, over a million UK citizens living abroad may not be able to use their British accounts for borrowing and deposit services, or insurance contracts such as annuities that pay pensions,...

August 24, 2018
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22Aug

UK. Ian McKenna: We must pull pensions dashboard back from brink of demise

Suggestions that secretary of state for work and pensions Esther McVey may no longer be committed to the delivery of the pensions dashboard project has caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth around the industry. Personally, I do not see the problem. This is the perfect opportunity for it to take back ownership and control of the project. The current scope is so unwieldy while also being so constricted in its distribution (only to be available via the new single guidance...

August 22, 2018
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20Aug

UK. An ageing population is posing problems that Britain cannot ignore

A report last week from the Office for National Statistics projected that by 2066 a quarter of the UK population would be aged 65 or over. Whereas in 2016 there were 1.6 million people (or 2 per cent of the population) aged 85 or over, by 2066 the number is projected to rise to more than five million (or 7 per cent). The ageing of society is happening in every region of the world. Both in Britain and globally, it...

August 20, 2018
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