April 2026
07Apr

UK. Benefits and pensions rise as two-child cap ends

A host of benefits and the state pension are rising as the new financial year begins, including more money for larger families on universal credit. The two-child benefit cap has now been scrapped, meaning some 480,000 families with three or more children will get an average rise of £4,100 a year. One mum told the BBC the rise was a "massive help" in dealing with the rising cost of living, while charities have described the move as a "gamechanger". But some critics...

April 7, 2026
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07Apr

The UK needs a big debate on the sustainability of TPS for post-92s

The recent rise in employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) to 28.68 per cent – almost double that of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – presents a genuine and growing challenge for institutions legally required to offer it. We absolutely agree that university staff deserve competitive salaries with generous benefits and high-quality pensions. The question is how universities can sustain that commitment responsibly at a time when all universities are facing financial challenges for a variety of well-documented reasons. Urgent action is needed, and many universities are looking...

April 7, 2026
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06Apr

UK state pension age begins rise to 67 with payment boost

The UK state pension age has begun a phased increase from 66 to 67, starting with people born in the early 1960s, alongside a 4.8% payment rise under the triple lock. The change, expected to save £10bn annually by 2030, has drawn concern from charities about its impact on lower-income and less healthy regions. Political pledges to maintain the costly triple lock persist despite warnings about the system’s long-term sustainability. Pension age rise begins with phased rollout From Monday, the UK...

April 6, 2026
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01Apr

Iran war may increase mortgage payments for extra 1.3m households, says Bank of England

The US-Israel war on Iran could end up increasing monthly mortgage payments for more than one million more UK households, the Bank of England has predicted, adding that the conflict had dealt “a substantial negative supply shock” to the world economy. Financial market jitters over the conflict in the Middle East have resulted in banks pulling about 1,500 mortgage products, with many banks raising interest rates on their remaining 7,000 home loan products in recent weeks, the Bank’s financial policy committee (FPC) said. The increases,...

April 1, 2026
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01Apr

UK. Why younger retirees are earning more from their pensions

Data on pensioner incomes were published last week, and it made for interesting reading. Pensioner incomes have remained stable over recent years, with average income after housing costs hitting £455 per week. However, looking a bit deeper there’s some interesting trends to pick out. Female pensioners continue to have lower pension incomes than men; single pensioner households get by on less than half of their coupled-up counterparts, and younger pensioner households have higher incomes than older ones. There’s also interesting data...

April 1, 2026
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01Apr

Pension Adecuacy – June 2025

By Hargreaves Lansdown To provide insights into the nation's retirement resilience, the Hargreaves Lansdown Savings and Resilience Barometer includes the Pension Value indicator. This indicator evaluates the expected financial resilience of households in retirement. It does this by comparing their current pension savings against the level of saving needed to achieve a benchmark income in retirement. The Pension Value indicator is currently underpinned by the Pension and Lifetime Saving Association’s (PLSA) moderate living standard in retirement benchmark. However, there are a...

April 1, 2026
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March 2026
31Mar

UK. PMI: Why a new pension system needs a new regulatory approach

The latest of the Pensions Management Institute’s (PMI’s) regular columns says the question is no longer how we regulate schemes, but how we regulate a system. For years, policymakers and the industry have anticipated defined contribution (DC) consolidation. That future has now arrived. Master trusts now dominate both DC membership and assets, smaller schemes continue to exit the market, and the landscape is increasingly shaped by a small number of large providers. Yet our regulatory framework still reflects an earlier,...

March 31, 2026
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27Mar

UK. Pension investment in affordable housing constrained by ‘practical barriers’

Pension investment in affordable housing is being constrained by a series of practical barriers, rather than a lack of capital or willingness to invest, a report from Nest Insight has shown. Its research, which explored whether money from pension funds could help build more social and affordable homes, highlighted two ‘parallel crises’ in the UK housing system. These were a crisis of home ownership for those who cannot afford to buy a house, and a crisis of options for people living...

March 27, 2026
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26Mar

UK. Only 14 per cent of people ‘on track’ to retire when they want

Just 14 per cent of people are on track to retire when and how they want, with large gaps between expectation and reality, research by savings platform Flagstone has found. The survey findings revealed that, on average, respondents would like to retire at age 61. However, based on current savings and contribution levels, most will not be able to retire until the age of 83 – revealing a 22-year discrepancy. The findings are broken down by industry, with only 4.7 per cent...

March 26, 2026
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25Mar

UK. CDC not expected to become ‘mainstream offering’ within the next three years

Two-thirds (67 per cent) of pension professionals do not believe that collective defined contribution (CDC) will be a mainstream workplace pension offering within the next three years, according to a survey of delegates at TPT’s recent Pensions Pathways conference. Meanwhile, a third (33 per cent) of survey respondents believed CDC schemes would be a mainstream workplace pension offering within three years. Speaking at the event, Vidett head of trusteeship, Alison Hatcher, urged the delegates to be “open minded right now”. “There are...

March 25, 2026
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