UK Archives - Page 188 of 193 - Pension Policy International

26JunJune 26, 2017

UK. New solutions needed for defined benefit pension schemes

The Cass Pensions Institute says new solutions are needed in stressed defined benefit pension schemes to prevent intergenerational inequities. The Institute has responded to the Department of Work and Pensions Green Paper, Security and Sustainability in Defined Benefit Pension Schemes. The Greatest Good 2 paper follows up and reconfirms the findings of an 2015 Pensions Institute discussion paper which found that 1,000 occupational defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are stressed as a result of having financially weak sponsors. Professor David Blake, Director,...

June 26, 2017

News, SliderUK

23JunJune 23, 2017

UK. ‘Triple lock’ is unsustainable, says new Pensions Secretary David Gauke

The pension triple lock is no longer a sustainable policy, the new Work and Pensions Secretary has insisted. David Gauke said the mechanism would remain until 2020, but would then be "reflected" on. The Conservative manifesto pledged to abandon the triple lock on state pensions rises, which sees the state pension rise in line with either wages, inflation or earnings - whichever is highest. However, the flagship pledge was not mentioned in the Queen Speech after the Prime Minister failed to secure...

June 23, 2017

News, SliderUK

23JunJune 23, 2017

Global Pension Risk Survey reveals UK progress on de-risking

The biennial survey saw responses from 185 UK schemes, with 4.5 million members and £500 billion of assets. Most apparent among the findings was the growing appetite for de-risking and the increasing range of actions being taken. Matthew Arends, partner at Aon Hewitt said: “The UK findings of this year’s Aon Global Pension Risk Survey report that just 4% of respondents had implemented an Integrated Risk Management (IRM) plan with actions, and 46% either had no IRM plan or had...

June 23, 2017

NewsUK

22JunJune 22, 2017

UK. Silence on pensions in the Queen’s Speech was a big mistake – Theresa May should have stuck to her instincts

Wednesday's Queen’s Speech was a pot-holed, broken reflection of the manifesto the Conservative Party stood on just two weeks ago. Thankfully a number of the manifesto’s egregious policies didn’t make the Queen’s final pages, but, more problematically, a number of its good ones also felt the executioner’s touch. None more so than the brave changes Theresa May had proposed on pensioner benefits and care. Proposals to means-test the universal winter fuel payment, scrap the triple lock on pensions, and the...

June 22, 2017

NewsUK

21JunJune 21, 2017

UK’s Ageing Workforce Will Decide Our Future After Brexit

Here are some numbers for you to conjure with. In the 10 years to 2022, some 12.5 million jobs will be opened up in the UK through people leaving the workforce, mostly through retirement or ill-health. Over the same period an estimated two million new jobs will be created, given a fair economic wind. Yet based on the number of young people reaching adulthood, just seven million will enter the workforce. Even allowing for the vagaries of economic forecasting,...

June 21, 2017

NewsUK

21JunJune 21, 2017

UK. DB transfer paper shows FCA ‘moving into 21st century’, say advisers

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consultation paper on advising on defined benefit (DB) pension transfers has brought the regulator's approach into the 21st century, according to advisers. The paper proposed a number of vital changes to regulation on DB transfers so as to mitigate the risk posed to consumers of giving up safeguarded benefits. These included removing the default position that transferring out of a defined benefit scheme was 'unsuitable' for a client, clarifying the definition of an 'insistent client', and...

June 21, 2017

NewsUK

20JunJune 20, 2017

UK. £11bn merger moves closer for Scots financial services giants

STANDARD Life chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone has said the £11bn merger with Aberdeen Asset Management will create a global funds powerhouse run from Scotland but underlined the enlarged group’s expected commitment to the pensions and savings market. Speaking after shareholders in both firms gave strong backing to the proposal to combine the firms, Sir Gerry said the pension arm will play a key role in bringing in funds for the asset management business to invest. “The pensions and savings business in...

June 20, 2017

NewsUK

19JunJune 19, 2017

UK. FTSE 350 pensions in weakest position since 2009

British listed companies' ability to meet the obligations of their defined benefit, or final salary, pension schemes is at its weakest since 2009 as a result of falling gilt yields, consultancy firm PwC said on Monday. Low interest rates have increased the gap between pension schemes' assets, typically held in UK government bonds, and the fixed sums they need to pay to pensioners. Large pension deficits can reduce companies' ability to pay dividends as they divert cash into the pension schemes...

June 19, 2017

NewsUK

16JunJune 16, 2017

UK. New pensions minister to take on expanded role

Hexham MP Guy Opperman will be the new pensions minister, the Government has announced. Opperman takes over the brief from Watford MP Richard Harrington, who has been moved to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of the Conservative Party’s reshuffle. However, Opperman’s brief has been expanded to also include financial inclusion. The Government’s website entry still says that exactly what this entails will be confirmed “in due course”. Widening the pensions minister remit stands in contrast to criticisms...

June 16, 2017

NewsUK

14JunJune 14, 2017

UK. Pensions Regulator warns over dividends

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) warned it would "intervene" in individual circumstances where schemes were being treated unfairly. In a review of Britain's defined benefit pension schemes published today the TPR said British corporate profits have grown over the last three years. But as dividend paid have increased, there has not been an associated increase in payments into so-called deficit repair contributions, in other words, the amount paid to plug pension holes. SCHRODERS TALK UK election result: what it means for markets, the economy...

June 14, 2017

NewsUK

June 2017