All articles by Jennifer Paterson – Page 162
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Government launches consultation on public sector pension contributions
The Treasury has launched a consultation on the discount rate used to set unfunded public sector pension contributions.The government announced in November's Comprehensive Spending Review that it would consult on this issue, in response to a recommendation in the interim report of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission. The Commission ...
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Morgan McKinley research: Half of Irish employers expect to pay bonuses
Half of the respondents (50.5%) of the Morgan McKinley Irish Employment Monitor expect to pay bonuses at the end of 2010.Those anticipating bonuses expect them to be quite modest, with 45% of managers expecting them to fall in the range of 1- 5% of base salaries, while 38% of respondents ...
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Finance Bill 2011: Government increases personal allowance and reduces basic tax rate threshold
The government has confirmed it will increase the personal tax allowance for those aged under 65 to £7,475 and reduce the basic limit to £35,000 from 6 April 2011.There will be no significant compliance costs for organisations from making this routine change to employees’ pay as you earn (PAYE) thresholds.The ...
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Finance Bill 2011: Tax charge linked to Nest costs to be removed
Legislation will be introduced in the Finance Bill 2011 that will remove the tax charge on borrowing linked to the cost of setting up, managing or administering the national employment savings trust (Nest), subject to conditions.Those affected include employer, employees, Nest and its members, as well as other qualifying pension ...
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Lincolnshire County Council appoints pension fund manager
Lincolnshire County Council has appointed Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners to manage its pension fund.The appointment follows an extensive investment manager search conducted with JLT Investment Consulting (JLT).The council was looking to appoint a manager which would invest 15% of its £1.2bn pension fund across the diverse options of alternative ...
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DWP appoints new chair to The Pensions Regulator
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has appointed Michael O’Higgins chair of The Pensions Regulator.He will take up his post from 1 January 2011 for a three-year term.David Norgrove, the current chair, will leave the regulator on 31 December 2010 when his second term in the post comes to ...
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Katharine Turner takes reward role at CIPD
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Reward (CIPD) has appointed Katharine Turner, practice leader of Towers Watson’s executive compensation team in the UK, as vice president of performance and reward.The elected appointment, which will last for two years, was made at the CIPD’s annual general meeting on 7 December.Turner said: ...
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Comet switches voluntary benefits providers
Comet has switched providers for its online voluntary benefits scheme.The electrical retailer previously provided an online voluntary benefits scheme for two years with a different provider but felt that it was not getting value for money for its 10,000 UK staff.Its new online portal, which has been rebranded under the ...
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BBS Consultants and Actuaries launches pensions services
BBS Consultants and Actuaries has launched two services designed to protect directors and trustees against fraud and support pension governance.Its mortality screening service helps organisations to establish the location of pensions scheme members, instead of relying on their families to inform trustees of their death.By working in conjunction with tracing ...
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NAPF research: Employers should be able to choose inflation measure
Almost half (48%) of NAPF members which run a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme would use a new legal power to switch from inflation indexation from the retail prices index (RPI) to consumer prices index (CPI).A further 21% said they would not and 31% said they did not know, according ...
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Allstate Northern Ireland launches payroll Isa
Allstate Northern Ireland has launched a payroll individual savings account (Isa).The WorkSave Isa, which is a stock and shares Isa and is provided by Legal and General, has an annual allowance of £10,200 for the 2010/11 tax year. It has no income tax or capital gains tax.Employees can make regular ...
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Female employees with shares in media, travel and leisure sectors most loyal
Female employees in the media, travel and leisure sectors have the highest levels of employee loyalty.Share plan registrar Equiniti's Workplace Loyalty Index also reveals a general increase in employee loyalty as a result of providing staff with shares in the organisations they work.The greatest loyalty boost can be seen among ...
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Telefonica, FirstGroup and Tesco among employee share plan award winners
The IFS Proshare Annual Awards were presented in London on 2 December.The awards recognise organisation’s commitment to delivering best practice, innovative design and creative communications for their employee share plans.The winners were: Global Payments UK for ‘Best new share plan’ Telefonica for ‘Best international share plan’ SSL International for ‘Most ...
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HMRC publishes consultation on PAYE system
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published a consultation document called Improving the operation of Pay As You Earn: Collecting Real Time Information.Pay as you earn (PAYE) real time information means employers will send HMRC information about tax and other deductions from employees’ pay when the employee is paid, rather ...
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Private sector employers asked to publish gender pay data voluntarily
Employers with more than 250 employees will not have to publish gender pay data, as previously proposed under the Equality Act 2010.Instead, they will be asked to do so on a voluntary basis.As part of the government’s Equality Strategy, which was announced 2 December by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, the ...
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Xafinity Pension Trust receives Pension Quality Mark
The Xafinity Pension Trust (XPT), a mastertrust defined contribution (DC) pension product, has been awarded the Pension Quality Mark (PQM).XPT provides members with access to a DC pension arrangement. All communications can be tailored to fit with an organisation’s brand.The PQM standard was launched in 2009 by the National Association ...
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Co-operative Employee Benefits launches bikes-for-work scheme
Co-operative Employee Benefits is launching a new bikes-for-work scheme to run alongside its existing childcare voucher product.Bikes for work, the government-supported initiative, allows employers to purchase a bike and accessories as chosen by an employee who then hires it from the employer over 12 or 18 months.The payment comes directly ...
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Historic Scotland to implement HR self-service system
Historic Scotland has signed a five-year contract with NorthgateArinso for a combination of systems and outsourcing services.The Scottish Government agency responsible for Scotland’s historic environment will adopt NorthgateArinso’s ResourceLink Aurora system including the HR self-service modules, from an anticipated implementation date of March 2011.The system will also include an interface ...
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Thames Water re-appoints pension scheme administrator
Thames Water has re-appointed Capita Hartshead as administrator to its two pension schemes.The renewed contract will run for six years from January 2011.The two schemes, which are both defined benefit (DB) arrangements, have a combined membership of around 13,000.As well as administration, Capita Hartshead will be providing pension payroll and ...
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DWP drops plans to prevent transfer of full pension from DB to DC schemes
After a three-month long consultation, the government is to drop plans which would have prevented members of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes from transferring their full pension to UK defined contribution (DC) arrangements.Draft legislation published by the Department of Work and Pensions in June would have prevented the transfer of ...