All Employee Benefits articles in Web Issue – Page 588
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Article
SMEs face pensions advice gap
Small and medium-sized (SME) employers are suffering a severe shortage of advisory support in managing their pensions schemes, according to Dr Debbie Harrison, senior visiting fellow at The Pensions Institute at Cass Business School.Speaking at the Employee Benefits Pensions and Workplace Savings Summit on 31 January, Harrison expressed concern about ...
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Article
Employers should measure pension scheme value
Employers should measure the value of their pension schemes to ensure they are fit for purpose, according to Debbie Harrison, senior visiting fellow at The Pensions Institute at Cass Business School. Speaking at the Employee Benefits Pensions and Workplace Savings Summit on 31 January, Harrison said employers should start by ...
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Article
Mercer appoints Fiona Dunsire UK CEO
Mercer has appointed Fiona Dunsire chief executive officer.Dunsire joined Mercer as a graduate in 1988, and has almost 25 years of experience consulting in the UK.Her previous roles within the business include senior client leader and business leader in Mercer’s investment business. She has also served on a number of ...
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Article
Small employers do not support consolidation
Only a fifth of small employers surveyed believe the government should encourage scheme consolidation in the pensions market, according to research by the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA).Its report, Challenges ahead for the new medicine, forms the second part of the ACA’s Smaller firms’ pension survey, which was published in ...
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Article
Employers' fears over providers' RTI readiness
More than half (52%) of employer respondents expect payroll providers to supply the support needed to be real time information (RTI) compliant, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).Its survey of 197 HR and payroll professionals found that 99% of respondents will need some level of support to ensure they are ...
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Article
Employees want more festive stress support
Employee respondents would have liked to receive more emotional or stress-related support from their employer during the festive period, according to research by Canada Life Group.The research, which surveyed 1,613 employees, found that 13% of respondents received additional access to emotional or stress-related support from their employer, while a further ...
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Article
Medically-underwritten buy-ins could equal DB pension savings
Trustees of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes could secure savings of 10% or more by de-risking their pensioner sections through a health and lifestyle underwriting technique, according to a report by the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School.A healthier way to de-risk: the introduction of medical underwriting to the defined ...
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Article
UBS changes compensation framework
UBS has implemented changes to its compensation framework to better align employee and shareholder interests.According to the bank’s Fourth quarter 2012 report, these changes aim to focus employees on medium and longer-term performance, provide them with the opportunity to benefit from the bank’s long-term success, and make the compensation framework ...
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Article
Small business unaware of RTI
Only 19% of respondents are aware of, and prepared for, the introduction of real-time information (RTI) reporting in April, according to research by Crunch Accounting.Its study of 503 people working in small businesses, found that 46% of respondents had no knowledge of RTI, while 35% were only vaguely aware of ...
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Opinion
Susan Ball: In pursuit of trivial benefits
When can a benefit be exempt from tax? When HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) decides it’s trivial enough not to pursue, is the answer. But be warned. The term ‘trivial’ can be subjective because there is no statutory limit below which benefits are not taxable. You need to consider if ...
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Article
Most over-50s have never increased pension contributions
More than half (62%) of over-50s who are still in work have never increased the amount they contribute to their pension, according to research by Friends Life.Its Pension savings report, which surveyed 1,606 ovr 50s who have not yet retired, found that, of those who have made adjustments, 56% have ...
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Article
2013 Corporate Adviser award winners
Employee Benefits’ sister publication, Corporate Adviser, announced the winners of its annual awards on 5 February at the Grosvenor House Hotel.Thomsons Online Benefits was named corporate adviser firm of the year 2013, while corporate adviser small firm of the year went to 80TwentyConsultancy.The winners also included:Ultimate default fund 2013 – ...
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Article
Killik partners Sanne Group for EBTs
Killik Employee Services (KES) has partnered with fiduciary services provider Sanne Group to provide trustee services for employee benefit trusts (EBTs).The partnership will combine KES’s share plan administration technology and Sanne Group’s focus on specialist trusteeship.KES’s employer clients can now access the trustee service.Martin Osborne-Shaw, managing director at KES (pictured), ...
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Article
Wage growth for UK gas and oil workers
The average salary for full-time UK gas and oil professionals has grown by 7.2% since 2012, according to research by Hays Oil and Gas and jobsite Oil and Gas Job Search.The Oil and gas global salary guide 2013 found that the average salary for full-time gas and oil professionals is ...
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Article
Call for major rethink on executive pay
Pension fund investors have called for a major rethink on executive pay to align it more closely with an organisation’s long-term performance.The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), Hermes Equity Ownership Services (Hermes EOS), BT Pension Scheme, RPMI Railpen and USS Investment Management have published a discussion document setting out ...
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Article
Visa Europe trains staff to volunteer
EXCLUSIVE: Visa Europe is to provide training to employees this month, before they embark on UK-wide volunteering assignments.The credit card company’s volunteering programme, which has been in place for several years, enables staff to develop skills by working directly with local communities.Through the Arc Building Better Business programme, which is ...
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Article
Virgin Media’s share scheme windfall
Almost 2,500 Virgin Media employees could receive an average of £15,984 each as the media company is sold to US cable television giant Liberty Global.Around 2,468 staff who signed up for a sharesave scheme in 2009 will share in the proceeds of the deal, which was agreed on 6 February.These ...
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Article
DOD’s blog: this week in benefits
Today I had the privilege of lunching with the highly regarded John Greenwood (editor of Corporate Adviser and regular writer for the likes of The Sunday Telegraph and Money Marketing).Few journalists are as clued up on pensions as John, so when he has a beef about something it is usually ...
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Article
Bonus plan to keep staff off Facebook
Something for the weekend…The invention of social media sites has had an impact on productivity for many an employer. Getting staff to stop using sites such as Facebook during work hours usually involves blocking them, but maybe employers should consider a bonus plan to encourage a reduction in use?Enterprising Massachusetts ...
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Article
Premier launches specialist charities unit
Premier has launched a specialist charities unit, which will offer a range of pensions, benefits and actuarial services for charities, not-for-profit organisations and educational establishments.It has also set up a charity pension team, which will be led by John Reeve, head of consulting services (pictured).Reeve said: “We are acutely aware ...