Category: Private pensions
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Lord Davies of Brixton recently, and very kindly, bought me a cup of tea and had a chat with me about IHT. I think he quite clearly sets out the government’s rationale for applying IHT to pension savings and talks us through his concerns. Here is a record of our chat! PG: Why is the…
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There has been talk recently in the news about means testing the State Pension. This is because the costs of the State Pension will continue to grow, despite increases in State Pension age (SPa). Spending on State pension in 2024/25 is forecast to be around £137.5bn. Spending on state pensions and pensioner benefits costs around…
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The DWP has announced that the automatic enrolment Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band will stay the same in 2025/26 as it was in 2024/25. These affect eligibility and contribution levels and mean that: This means that as earnings increase, more people will be eligible for automatic enrolment, and people will receive and pay more…
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I watched the live stream of the Resolution Foundation seminar yesterday on their excellent report: A hard day’s night: the labour market experience of low-to-middle income families. This report highlights that employment rates have increased among low income families despite factors which would have been expected to reduce rates. The report notes several important factors:…
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I attended the launch of the OECD’s 2024 edition of Pensions Outlook today, kindly hosted by Standard Life at Barings. One of the key themes of this year’s report is inclusivity, as in – how do we ensure all working people are included in quality pension savings? The OECD concludes that multi-employer schemes can play…
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I feel like the Government’s agenda around pension scheme investment is a bit confusing at the moment. On the one hand, there is the drive for DC schemes to invest more in illiquids, infrastructure and private markets generally. Then there is the added element that the Government believes a growing proportion of this needs to…
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The Government is frustrated at the slow pace of LGPS pooling. Since the eight LGPS pools were set up in 2015, the Government has been pushing for 100% pooling. However, as of March 2024, only 45% of LGPS assets are invested through pools (HMT, 2024). The level of pooling varies by Local Authority, in 2022…