Opinion – Page 2
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OpinionRhiannon Barnsley: Auto-enrolment reform gives employees a choice
Nobody is thinking about pension auto-enrolment reform at the moment. Quite frankly, people are more concerned about how they are going to afford to put the heating on this winter, or how they are going to pay their mortgage. Understandably, of course. However, this should not be used as an ...
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OpinionLauren Wilkinson: Collective defined contribution pensions offer employers greater control
As UK pension provision shifts increasingly away from defined benefit (DB) schemes, collective defined contribution (CDC) plans could be an attractive option for employers looking at closing existing DB schemes in order to have greater certainty and control over costs.It could also appeal to employers currently providing DC arrangements which ...
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OpinionStephen Morrall and Annabelle Woosnam: Pensions in the gig economy
An article published by the Financial Times on 14 June reported that the UK pensions regulator has conceded that not all gig economy employers have done 'the right thing' and offered pensions to staff. What does this mean?In recent years, vast numbers of people have entered the gig economy, working ...
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OpinionDaniela Silcock: Can we better support those struggling to pay pension contributions?
It has been a difficult few years. The economic fallout of Brexit, followed swiftly by the Covid-19 pandemic has left a lot of people who were already on low incomes struggling to make ends meet. Recent cost-of-living increases arising from global fuel and food shortages and exacerbated by the war ...
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OpinionAida Rehmatullah: It is never too early for staff to engage with pension decisions
Our purpose at the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is to protect the financial future belonging to millions of people throughout the UK who belong to defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. As a large asset owner, it’s critical we consider all the potential risks over the entire time horizon of our ...
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OpinionCharlotte Clewes?Boyne: The consultation on the draft pensions dashboard regulations
The pensions dashboards project, spearheaded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), is gaining pace, designed to give people more control over their pensions. The cost of building the central infrastructure will be borne by the government, but there will also be a cost to employers. It is worth ...
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OpinionDaniela Silcock: Why master trusts have become the pension destination of choice
Master trusts have come into their own over the past 10 years. From a niche arrangement pre-automatic enrolment, master trusts have become the pension scheme type into which 84% of employees are enrolled.Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) modelling expects that out of around 15 million active defined contribution (DC) pension savers ...
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OpinionTim Middleton: Employers can provide constructive support for early retirement
During the heyday of the final salary pension scheme about 40 years ago, early retirement was a common phenomenon. Early retirement was typically triggered by redundancy. An employer would augment an employee’s pension entitlement, and paid employment would come to an abrupt, if not unwelcome, end from the age of ...
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OpinionDale Critchley: Saving for a brighter retirement; how to engage employees with their pension now
Getting employees to think about their retirement savings can be tricky, and employers may struggle to make pensions exciting but there are ways to get employee's attention. After all, people do care about their finances and their future.A great way to capture the interest of employees is to let them ...
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OpinionDale Critchley: Value for members should mean greater value for employers too
With headlines focused on a rise in the cost of living, the need to obtain value for money has never been greater. When it comes to a workplace pension it is no different. Employers need to make sure their pension scheme is valued, acts as a tool to attract and ...
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OpinionDale Critchley: How to keep members engaged with ESG investing
Thanks to automatic enrolment the staff pension scheme is now ubiquitous and employee awareness of the need to save is high. Employees know they’ll receive at least a minimum contribution paid into their workplace scheme. Many employees might understand that the minimum is unlikely to be enough, and value the ...
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OpinionTracy McMullen: Ashurst engages all staff in pension savings
At Ashurst, we closely consider the pension and benefits we offer and focus particularly on how we engage our people in these offerings to ensure they are of maximum benefit.We all benefit from employees feeling equipped and able to perform at their best, and a critical component of this is ...
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OpinionJeremy Harris: How can employers reduce the gender pensions gap?
The fact that both personal and workplace private pensions are closely aligned to paid work means that employers play an important role in determining post-retirement financial wellbeing. So what can employers do to close the gender pensions gap?Women are more likely to work fewer paid pensionable hours than men over ...
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OpinionJohn Adams: Pensions landscape will be changing in 2022
In what may bring a sigh of relief, 2022 is not a year with new legal requirements incumbent on employers regarding pensions. But there are many ongoing requirements to be mindful of, and changes within the pensions environment that could lead to future impacts.There is going to need to be ...
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OpinionJeremy Harris: What are the long-term consequences of the pensions pay gap?
During a House of Lords debate on 22 November 2021, following a question posed by Labour life peer Lord Sikka about the UK government's efforts to tackle entrenched gender pay inequality, the pensions gap was highlighted as an issue of major concern.The pensions gap, it was noted, contributes to societal ...
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OpinionKirsty Pake: How to solve a problem like pension scams
To quote the Department of Work and Pensions: “pension scams are a menace”. Until now, trustees’ hands were tied where a member had a statutory right to transfer their benefits and, even in cases where the receiving arrangement appeared to be a scam, they were obliged to make the transfer.Regulations ...
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OpinionJohn Hebblethwaite: Employees need more pensions education
There has been a seismic shift in the pensions landscape since the launch of automatic enrolment and there are now 15 times as many retirement savers who are members of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes compared with the historically more typical sort of defined benefit (DB) schemes.The Financial Conduct Authority ...
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OpinionMark Ormston: Key considerations to introducing a salary sacrifice pension scheme
When introducing a salary sacrifice pension scheme, early engagement with payroll is key, as it is vital to involve them as soon as possible in the discussions. An employer may discover the systems or software currently being used have certain limitations or missing functionality to meet desired requirements.Employers should consider ...
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OpinionKate Payne: Is the GMP equalisation update realistic?
When it comes to guaranteed minimum pension (GMP) equalisation on past transfers, the new Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) guide does a good job of explaining the total mess schemes find themselves in as a result of the 2020 Lloyds judgement, and how the obligation might be discharged in a ...
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OpinionHayley James: Pensions engagement is becoming an increasingly important issue
The focus on the topic of engagement, meaning informing employees to encourage positive action, in retirement plans has increased recently. Despite the success of auto-enrolment in getting people to save, many are not contributing enough to ensure an adequate income in later life. Additionally, the pension freedoms mean that savers ...