Mr Speaker, I now turn to the future of pensions. I know that the policy of pensions auto-enrolment has wide support across the House and is proving a great success. Opt-out levels have proved lower than even the most optimistic forecasts. But while we may have got people saving again, and made sure that most…
So now we know that the Conservative manifesto will require strike ballots to have a 50% turn out before they are valid. This is an absurd electoral system in which abstentions count more than votes against.
In the Budget the Chancellor announced that he was abolishing the requirement for Defined Contribution (DC) pension savers to turn their pensions pot into regular income though buying an annuity. He also said that from next April everybody would be entitled to a free guidance session on how to navigate their retirement options. Everyone is…
There is growing support for “going Dutch” with pensions. Last week Rachel Reeves backed so-called collective defined contribution (CDC) pensions, and this weekend Pensions Minister Steve Webb got a good showing in the press for the Bill that will allow CDC schemes to be set up in the UK.
Rachel Reeves made some welcome policy announcements in her speech to the Resolution Foundation this morning. I took away three issues as the important announcements: lowering the earnings trigger for auto-enrolment support for target/collective DC pensions a commission to draw up proposals for the post-Budget landscape
The OECD has launched a video today with a radical attack on growing inequalities between rich and poor, which they argue are not just unfair but holding back the economy. They call for new approaches to taxing the rich, and for new policies of redistribution. Radical stuff!
I recently did an interview for the World Finance website on why I don’t like the Budget pension reforms. You can read a transcription on their website here or open up the post to watch the video.
Today the TUC sets out why the rise in the income tax personal allowance does not help the low paid – in particular the one in four women who now earn less than the tax allowance. As they no longer pay any tax they will not gain from an increase in the allowance. What is…
Across the UK, around five million people get paid less than the living wage, around one in five workers, but there’s a lot of variation depending on where you live. Official figures from the House of Commons Library show that in some parts of the country, nearly half of jobs pay below the living wage…
I’ve written enough on the budget changes in the last few days. Here are some other critical voices, in addition to John McTernan and Hilary Salt to whom I linked yesterday.