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“Free money”- why do those eligible for it- not want it; guest blog from...
NEST has recently published its latest annual ‘insight’, a study that looks at the behaviours and attitudes of members enrolled into workplace pensions. The ‘insight’ finds that older workers have...
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Is he mad in the Ed? -Another great guest blog from Ralph Frank
Ed Miliband’s recent proposal to cut the Lifetime Allowance (“LA”) for pension savings from £1.25 million to £1 million would deal a further blow to encouraging private pension provision, if...
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Dear Government- “Five do’s, five don’ts”– #pensions
Pension Minister Webb – (May 2020) For those slipping quietly into retirement in the UK the political promises are about the revaluation of your state benefits, the payment of your winter allowance and...
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Raining on pensions (again)! Guest Blog from Ralph Frank
The 2015 Summer Budget has delivered a series of blows to pensions in the UK. The Chancellor of the Exchequer claims that “the government is committed to supporting savers at all stages of their...
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We had it coming!
I haven’t read the reaction of the pension hierarchy to the Treasury’s consultation on the future of pension tax relief – I don’t have to. Steve Bee’s tweet “I don’t want to spend the rest of my time...
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Beyond tax relief – a new savings incentive
In 2002, Ros Altmann wrote a blog, suggesting we move from incentivising pensions savings through tax relief , to a system which targeted those who needed help most- those with low incomes who found...
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Free to overpay tax?? – what kind of freedom is that?
Question – when is a freedom a pension freedom? Answer- when its got a big tax-bill attached! The pensions minister Ros Altmann has said the government’s proposals to tax pensions in a similar way...
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Towers Watson’s mansion on the hill.
It’s good to see Pension Minister Ros Altmann paying some attention to the pension small schemes sign up to as part of staging auto-enrolment. Corporate Adviser run the article, the link’s here. Of...
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Pension PlayPen’s response to the Treasury on pension tax-relief
The Treasury has asked eight great questions which go to the heart of how we incentivise pension saving. Here are our responses. We haven’t formally sent these responses to the Treasury yet, so if you...
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Why “pensions ISAs” must be more than ISAs
Ros Altmann has recently commented that simply topping up ISAs and calling them “Pension ISAs” is not going to help solve our long-term retirement problems. The danger of using the ISA structure is...
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“Tax relief – what are the numbers?” Guest blog from Ralph Frank
The Government has repeatedly expressed its concern, both in the 2015 Budget (paragraph 1.232) and in the recently announced consultation on pensions tax relief, at the level of income tax forgone...
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“We all defer together?”– Guest Blog from Ralph Frank
The recently announced consultation on pensions tax relief has stirred up thought and debate on the issue of incentivising long-term saving. There are theoretical, commercial and practical aspects to...
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Why I want to be old – rich and pay no tax!
There’s a famous story, now fading from popular memory about Strand, a brand of cigarettes in the sixties. Strand came out with a strap-line “you’re never alone with a Strand” It killed the brand...
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Michael Johnson and the Super ISA
This is the latest from tax and pensions supremo – Michael Johnson. Love it or hate it – the pensions ISA or Super ISA as Michael calls it- looks set to dominate our thinking over the next few months...
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What are you trying to achieve, Chancellor – guest blog from Ralph Frank
The Government’s current consultation on “strengthening the incentive to save” seems to be missing some key background information around what the Government is trying to achieve. The Consultation...
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It’s auto-enrolment what’s done for tax relief!
I was leading a recent research document from the DWP assessing the impact of auto-enrolment, these are the key findings 10 million workers are estimated to be in the eligible target group for...
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“Low earners miss out on £85m pension tax relief”– and why!?
“Millions of part-time workers are being denied valuable tax-breaks on their pension contributions as government officials knowingly all low them to save into schemes that will not pay them relief...
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85 million reasons for change! Why pension tax relief is front page news.
How the Express report the FT’s story The Daily Express has picked up on the “loophole” caused by the increase in the nil rate band that is denying £85m of pension tax relief at source to part time...
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When organisations believe their own hype
The weird behaviourist thing about Volkswagon’s lack of emissional intelligence is that the “people’s car” is now disowned by its own people. Imagine how proud you must have been to work for VW,...
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How the autumn statement will effect pensions and pensioners
We’ll have to wait till April for the next rabbit in the hat! There were no big pension surprises in this autumn statement but the Chancellor managed to squeeze some savings from auto-enrolled workers...
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