Opinion – Page 3
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OpinionChris Brooks: Changes are needed to help women save more for retirement
In our increasingly uncertain world, building a future income by saving into a pension is very important. Auto-enrolment has helped many people to do this, with more than 10 million new savers since its inception, which is the start of building a platform for people’s later life.However, women are still ...
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OpinionSarah Henderson: What pension scheme employers should be prioritising in terms of GDPR
Pension scheme employers and trustees spent many hours getting ready for the revamped data protection regime that came into force on 25 May 2018. What’s new in the data protection landscape and what should pension scheme employers and trustees be prioritising three years later?First, mapping your data footprint remains a ...
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OpinionStuart O'Brien: Sustainably-invested pensions are firmly in the spotlight
As we all try to move towards a greener lifestyle, the environmental credentials of our pensions are increasingly under the spotlight. In part this is due to employees taking a greater interest in how their pensions are invested. But there is also a growing recognition that a more sustainably invested ...
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OpinionKate Payne and Max Ballad: Guaranteed minimum pensions (GMP) winners and losers
The UK Government has decided to make public service pension schemes fully responsible for increasing guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs) in line with price inflation. Previously, these annual increases were effectively shared between the state pension and the public service schemes.Up until 5 April 2016, a convenient arrangement existed which met ...
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OpinionTim Middleton: Pensions Scheme Act brings major changes to pensions governance
The Pension Schemes Act 2021 was finally granted Royal Assent in February this year. This new Act took a year to work its way through Parliament, so the industry has had plenty of time to become familiar with its contents. However, the sheer volume of material contained within the legislation ...
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OpinionTom Barton: Employers can find different opportunities in the Pension Schemes Act
The Pension Schemes Act reminds us that workplace pensions mean different things to different employers. The dividing lines are between big and small, and defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC).Very large employers have the opportunity to explore whether a collective defined contribution (CDC) scheme is right for them and ...
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OpinionJackie Buttery and Daniel Gerring: Pensions engagement requires clear communication
Pensions have a long history as an important financial benefit for employees, helping to safeguard financial security in the long term. The Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has prompted many organisations and individuals to focus on some serious, short-term challenges.For some, pensions have not been a priority. For others, and increasingly more ...
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OpinionKris Weber: Legislative changes could see pension scheme members lose out
Corporate failures have for many years adversely impacted both the defined benefit pension schemes operated by ailing entities, and the ‘member outcomes’ of those using them to save for retirement. 'Anti-avoidance' then became a big thing and The Pensions Regulator's (TPR’s) powers are soon to be further widened when the ...
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OpinionRob Yuille: A look at the pensions dashboards progress
Tuesday the 19th of January saw the Pension Schemes Bill overcome the last legislative hurdle before being signed into law by the Queen. While it covers many areas, some of the most hotly contested were the clauses regarding pensions dashboards.The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and others have already been ...
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OpinionNigel Peaple: Pensions dashboards will give people more control over their savings
After a long wait the Pension Schemes Bill will soon officially enter into law, having passed through the Parliament stage on 19 January.Among strengthening the powers of the Pensions Regulator, enabling a stronger funding regime for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes and allowing the creation of collective defined contribution (CDC) ...
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OpinionTim Middleton: Employees need to make informed decisions about their retirement
Retirement plans for 2021 have changed for many due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. While some have decided to put their retirement on hold due to their savings taking a hit because of Covid-19, others are deciding to retire early after being discouraged about finding employment again when faced with ...
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OpinionJeremy Harris: What will 2021 bring for pensions?
This year has seen monumental changes to employment law and employer/employee relations. For instance, we saw the introduction of the furlough scheme, completely new to employment law, which meant the government handed out billions of pounds to organisations in grants. With government support for the UK economy due to continue ...
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OpinionRobin Ford: Plugging the pension fund gap during the collapse of Arcadia
Roughly 13,000 Arcadia employees are at risk of redundancy after the group has gone into administration. The financial difficulties they are facing also include concerns over a £350 million deficit in its defined benefit (DB) pension fund.There have been reports of a £350 million deficit in the group’s pension fund, ...
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OpinionKerry Shiels: An effective pensions communications strategy needs a winning formula
Trying to talk about pensions to 65,000 employees proves to be a difficult task. Some have different levels of knowledge and understanding, across different age profiles, and all have different work modes; be that at home, in the office, at contact centres, in shops or in the field. It is ...
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OpinionDanyal Enver: High Court forces pension schemes to look at GMP payments
On 19 November, the High Court handed down its latest judgment in Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees case, clarifying some (but not all) of the issues that were left outstanding by the first judgment in this case, back in 2018.Guaranteed minimum pensions (GMPs) were the mechanism by which employers would ...
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OpinionLesley Alexander: Do pensions require a radical re-think?
I am taking over the presidency of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) against a backdrop of a global pandemic and the potential of further restrictions to our personal freedoms as we face a second wave of the Covid-19 virus.It seems a lifetime ago, not a year ago, since I chaired ...
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OpinionRichard Fitzjohn: Effective pensions communication is essential during pandemic
For Thames Water, it is not simply that we are an important service, we deliver life’s essential service so that our customers, communities and the environment can thrive. As such, meeting the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic matters not only to our employees, but also to every home, every business, ...
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OpinionOliver Topping: The journey continues for pensions dashboards
The pensions dashboards of the 2020s will, hopefully, help staff on a different kind of journey: a digital path to retirement.Recent updates from the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has set out a timeline for bringing dashboards online from 2023 onwards, though this may slip given the complexity of the project. ...
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OpinionKeith Richards: Employers must monitor the gender pay gap to tackle the pensions gap
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, women already faced a pension deficit that meant they retired on roughly a fifth of the amount a man had accrued.Data collected by the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Insuring Women’s Futures initiative before Covid-19 showed career breaks and part-time work reduce women’s prospects of getting a promotion, ...
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OpinionSteven Hull and Rosamund Wood: The pensions industry needs to generate interest among young employees
With the country entering economic recession, the Chancellor’s Kickstart scheme will provide much needed support for some young people seeking jobs in what may otherwise be an impossible market. For those aged over 22, these jobs will also come with the benefit of pension contributions, as the minimum wage paid ...