News – Page 22
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ArticleGareth Shaw: Will a bonus for new mothers sufficiently address the gender pensions gap?
The gender pension gap, which sees women retiring with less money than men, is rooted in a number of different issues. One of the main driving forces behind this, though, is the motherhood pension penalty.Automatic-enrolment into workplace pension schemes has been hugely effective in encouraging people to save for later ...
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ArticleDepartment of Health and Social Care to consult on changes to NHS pension scheme
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced a new public consultation on potential amendments to the National Health Service (NHS) pension scheme, designed to enable high-earning, senior doctors and surgeons to take on additional work, or continue working for longer, without the fear of tax charges impacting ...
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ArticleSavers have accessed £28.4 billion through pension freedoms since 2015
Retirement savers have accessed approximately £28.4 billion since pension freedom reforms were introduced in April 2015, according to data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).The Flexible payments from pensions: July 2019 official statistics report also found that the number of individuals who received flexible payments from their pensions in the ...
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ArticleBritish American Tobacco completes pension buy-in transaction worth £3.4bn
Cigarette and tobacco manufacturing organisation British American Tobacco has completed a pension buy-in transaction for its defined benefit (DB) scheme, totaling £3.4 billion.The transaction, completed with the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), insures the pension benefits of 10,600 members of the British American Tobacco UK Pension Fund; this includes 8,300 pensioners ...
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ArticleFinancial and insurance organisations contribute most to employees’ pensions
Financial and insurance organisations are the employers that contribute the most into employees’ pension pots, paying an average of 9.5% of an individual's salary into their retirement savings, according to research by Profile Pensions.Its analysis of employees over the age of 22 but under the state pension age, who earn ...
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ArticleFCA publishes policy statement to improve informed pensions decision-making
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has today (30 July 2019) published a policy statement confirming measures to improve informed decision-making around pension saving, in order to boost consumers’ retirement outcomes.The measures, due to come into force from 1 August 2020, are a result of the FCA’s Retirement outcomes review, which ...
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ArticleEXCLUSIVE: GPPs are offered as the primary scheme at 66% of organisations
EXCLUSIVE: Group personal pensions (GPPs) are the most popular primary schemes for auto-enrolment purposes, offered by 66% of respondents, according to research by Employee Benefits.The Benefits research 2019, published in May 2019, surveyed 290 HR professionals, and found that GPPs have remained the most popular choice for a number of ...
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ArticleGovernment to consult on gender pay gap metrics as part of gender equality roadmap
The government will review gender pay gap reporting metrics, evaluate shared parental leave and consult on providing dedicated employment rights for carers as part of its work to tackle gender inequalities.The Government Equalities Office (GEO) and member of Parliament Penny Mordaunt (pictured), the minister for women and equalities, published the ...
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ArticleSmiths Group completes pensioner buy-in transaction worth £176m
Engineering organisation Smiths Group has completed a bulk annuity buy-in transaction with insurer Canada Life.The policy insures the pension liabilities, worth around £176 million, for more than 2,000 legacy pensioners and dependents of the Smiths Industries Pension Scheme.The buy-in arrangement has been designed to de-risk the pension scheme’s liabilities; to ...
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ArticleSupreme Court refuses government’s appeal in judges’ pensions discrimination case
The Supreme Court yesterday (Thursday 27 June 2019) refused permission for the government to appeal in the ongoing age discrimination case regarding judges’ pensions.In January 2017, the London Central Employment Tribunal ruled that the Ministry of Justice and Lord Chancellor had discriminated against judges with regards to changes to the ...
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ArticleHalf believe benefits are not meeting the needs of multigenerational workforce
Half (50%) of employers do not think their benefits offering is meeting the needs of all generations within their workforce, with 89% believing that they will need to change their package to suit future generations entering the workforce, according to research by Aon.The Benefits and trends survey 2019, which polled ...
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ArticleEXCLUSIVE: Almost nine in 10 employers feel responsibility to provide financial wellbeing
EXCLUSIVE: Almost nine in 10 (88%) HR and benefit professionals have stated that it is their responsibility to provide support to employees on financial wellbeing, according to research by Smarterly.Realigning the workplace savings offering to meet the needs of millennials, which surveyed 1,248 employees and 508 HR professionals in the ...
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ArticleConsumers’ association recommends new mothers receive a £2,000 pension bonus
Consumers’ association and charity Which? has recommended that new mothers receive a £2,000 pension bonus to help mitigate the gender pensions gap.In its Top up the pots: Achieving adequate retirement incomes with automatic enrolment report, conducted with the Pensions Policy Institute and published in June 2019, Which? proposesd that new ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid examines HR policies
I am still reeling from the shock. Big Bad Boss has called me in and said they (presumably the Higher Beings on the third floor) want me to update the intranet. What all of it? Big Bad Boss seems to think so. He waves my concerns away with the back ...
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ArticleRolls-Royce completes pensioner buy-in transaction to insure £4.1bn pension liabilities
Engineering organisation Rolls-Royce has completed a pensioner buy-in transaction with Legal and General Assurance Society, totalling £4.1 billion.The policy insures the pension liabilities, worth around £4.1 billion, for 33,000 pensioner members of the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund, which has a total of 76,000 members. In addition, approximately £4.6 billion of ...
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ArticleDefined benefit pension deficit increases to £240 billion as of May 2019
The deficit for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes in the UK has increased to £240 billion as of the end of May 2019, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).Its Skyval index, which is based on aggregated data from 5,450 corporate DB pension funds, and is collected through the Skyval pensions ...
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ArticleGovernment introduces recruitment and retention allowance for judges
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has introduced a new temporary allowance for High Court, Circuit and Upper Tribunal judges in order to improve retention and recruitment.The policy, which was announced on Wednesday 5 June 2019, will award an allowance at 25% of base salary for High Court judges, while Circuit ...
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ArticleEligible employees saved £90.4bn into workplace pension pots in 2018
Eligible employees contributing to workplace pension pots saved a total of £90.4 billion in 2018, an increase of £7 billion on the amount saved over the previous year, according to research by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).Its annual Workplace pension participation and savings trends of eligible employees official ...
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ArticleGovernment to consult on new flexible option for NHS pension scheme
The Department of Health and Social Care and the Cabinet Office have announced a consultation on potential changes to the National Health Service (NHS) pension scheme, with the aim of enabling senior doctors to work for longer without the fear of tax charges impacting their retirement savings.The new 50:50 pension ...
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ArticleFTSE 350 defined benefit pension deficit rises to £57 billion in May 2019
The accounting deficit for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes at the UK’s top 350 organisations increased by £5 billion between April 2019 and May 2019, rising from £52 billion to £57 billion, according to research by Mercer.The Pension risk survey, which analyses the pension deficit calculated using the approach FTSE ...