December 2017

21Dec

British Steel pensions scandal: the story so far

This year's restructuring of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS), the savings pot for workers at the Port Talbot steelworks, followed nearly 12 months of negotiations and helped to lift the threat of closure that had loomed over the factory. Union members voted to accept the closure of the BSPS, which paved the way for Indian conglomerate Tata, which runs the steelworks, to merge its European steel business with German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp. That means the scheme will fall into the Pension...

December 21, 2017
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20Dec

The Pension Protection Fund aims to protect pensions – not management

By Nils Pratley It looks terrible for the Pension Protection Fund (PPF): the pensions lifeboat fund is planning to vote against a restructuring of the UK arm of Toys R Us, an action that could mean 3,200 people lose their jobs. On the company’s proposal, only 800 employees would depart and the others would resume the fight against Amazon’s invasion of the toy market. The PPF, however, is not to blame for this mess. Its hands are tied. The PPF’s jobis...

December 20, 2017
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20Dec

Toys R Us future in UK plunged into doubt over pension scheme

The retailer was told to put £9m into its struggling pension fund by the PPF in order for it to support the toy retailer's restructuring plan. Failure to agree a deal could put all its 3,200 staff at risk of redundancy. The PPF's Malcolm Weir said it believed it was "reasonable" to seek guarantees on the pension scheme's future. "Since the company lodged the CVA [company voluntary agreement] proposals we have spent significant time and effort, with the help of PwC,...

December 20, 2017
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12Dec

UK. FCA cracks down on steelworker pensions advisers

Three financial advice firms have stopped giving advice to steelworkers on transferring pension savings from a 15 billion pounds pot into other schemes, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday. The financial services industry watchdog has visited seven financial advisers and asked four more for information. “As a result of this work three firms have stopped advising consumers on pension transfers,” the FCA said in a statement. “The FCA plans to visit a further six firms this week.” Read more @Reuters

December 12, 2017
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11Dec

UK. Government urged to fasttrack ban on pensions cold calling

Pensions cold calling must be banned next year to prevent people being “avoidably conned out of their life savings”, an influential committee of MPs has said. The Work and Pensions Select Committee has warned the Government that the scale of the scamming is likely to be grossly underestimated by official reports. It has urged the Government to fasttrack an existing plan to ban the practice and also to do more to ensure that people are given guidance before they decide to...

December 11, 2017
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07Dec

UK will not pay lump sum Brexit bill, according to draft agreement

The U.K. will pay no upfront Brexit divorce bill to the European Union but will instead continue to act “as if [it] remained a member state” by meeting its ongoing liabilities as and when they arise for decades to come, according to a draft text of a joint agreement with the EU. The clause forms part of a proposed draft agreement between London and Brussels that was circulated among U.K. officials Monday, the contents of which have been shared with...

December 7, 2017
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06Dec

OECD: UK has lowest state pension of any developed country

Britain’s workers can look forward to the worst state pension of any major country, according to a report by the developed world’s leading economic thinktank. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study calculated that a typical British worker will at retirement receive a state pension and other benefits worth around 29% of what they had previously been earning. That compares with an average of 63% in other OECD countries, and more than 80% in Italy and the Netherlands. The report...

December 6, 2017
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05Dec

EU court adviser says Britain was wrong to refuse transgender woman’s pension

Britain’s rejection of a transgender woman’s claim for a women’s state pension because she was still married to her spouse from before her transition is discriminatory, an EU court adviser said on Tuesday. Advocate General Michal Bobek of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) stated in a non-binding opinion that marriage status does not play a role in accessing state retirement pensions for people who are not transgender. “This amounts to direct discrimination on the basis of sex,...

December 5, 2017
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05Dec

UK. ‘Corbyn fear’ sees pension fund body advise Labour council to invest abroad

A Labour-controlled council has been advised to invest some of its £250m in pension assets overseas because of the “political risk” of a Labour election victory and “renationalisation” by a Corbyn-led government. A Camden council document posted online last week summarises the advice given by London CIV, a £5.6bn fund management group set up by local authorities to manage the pension funds of London councils. London CIV is chaired by Bob Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, and includes board...

December 5, 2017
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04Dec

UK. Two in 10 pensioners now living in poverty

‘UK Poverty 2017’ – which says it’s the first report of its kind to assess rates of poverty and how they are changing - claims that 14 million people across the UK do not have enough money to have an acceptable standard of living. That 14 million is made up of eight million working age adults, four million children, and 1.9 million pensioners. JRF says that while poverty levels have substantially improved over the last two decades among those that are...

December 4, 2017
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