Pensions news
Pension news
Updating scheme literature TRAFALGAR HOUSE, the pensions administration specialist, says trustees need to update important scheme literature, such as member booklets, as this could avoid complications, confusion and complaints from members. Daniel Taylor, client director at Trafalgar House, commented that “It is understandable that member booklets might slip down the trustee agenda following large projects such as scheme closures and changes to revaluation and sponsoring employers, but as the only document which fully explains the rules to members, it must not be neglected. Further guidance requiring trustees to update the booklet every five years, or immediately following a substantive change to the benefit basis, would certainly go some way to ensuring smoother administration processes and fewer complications for members.” AE late stagers THE PROPORTION of companies applying to Aviva for a workplace pension after their automatic enrolment staging date has risen for six consecutive quarters which means almost one in five businesses are putting themselves at risk of a fine. From October 2017, a new company starting up will have to set up its workplace pension as soon as it takes on an employee. Andy Beswick, managing director of Business Solutions at Aviva, said: “If there are employers who have been putting it off, now is the time to take action. Embrace the workplace pension as a tool that can actually improve your business and act as an important incentive for your employees.”
Rainy day savings via AE STEPCHANGE DEBT Charity has called for the introduction of rainy day savings pots or accessible pensions saving (APS) via the existing automatic enrolment (AE) framework as a way to overcome the economic and behavioural barriers to building up precautionary savings, especially for those on low and middle incomes. Previous analysis by the charity found that if households had £1,000 in accessible savings it would reduce their risk of debt by 44% and could prevent 500,000 families from falling into problem debt. Analysis conducted by the Pensions Policy Institute confirms that £1,000 APS would have a minimal impact on retirement incomes and would be better financially for people than if they stopped paying into their pensions to cover emergency costs. StepChange Debt Charity is calling on the Department for Work and Pensions to consider its proposals in the current review of AE. The scheme would see a temporary diversion of AE contributions into the APS. This savings pot could then be accessed to cover emergency costs, such as replacing a boiler. The policy would allow for a maximum APS, initially set at £1,000 and then uprated into in-line with an index. Mike O’Connor, chief executive of StepChange Debt Charity, said: “The current automatic enrolment review offers a real opportunity to look at how we can further improve the financial resilience of households.” retirement this year because they can’t afford it, feel that realistically they are unlikely to be able to give up work completely until they are nearly seventy years old. This is in contrast to 64 years of age, which is the average at which they would ideally have preferred to retire. Is ‘pretirement’ the new reality? THE SHIFT to ‘pretirement’ – where people gradually scale back on work or change jobs altogether rather than stopping work entirely – has become the new retirement reality. According to Prudential’s latest annual research (which was conducted online 8–22 November 2016): ● more than half of people planning to retire this year will consider working past their state pension age ● around one in three (33%) of these people say they enjoy working ● more than a quarter (26%) don’t like the idea of retiring and being at home all the time. Financial worries are an issue for a number of those who are not retiring in 2017, with around one in twelve (8%) saying they can’t afford to retire. Of these, more than half admit that they haven’t saved enough into their pensions. The research shows that those who are delaying
TPR warns of AE scam THE PENSIONS Regulator (TPR) is warning employers to be wary of falling for a scam involving the sale of fake certificates that suggest they do not have workplace pension duties. Companies offering ‘certificates of auto enrolment exemption’ to employers are being investigated. Using information from its partners – which include Action Fraud, HM Revenue and Customs and the Financial Conduct Authority – TPR is updating its online content and resources (http://bit.ly/2tJUyZJ) to reflect changing scams models.
LGPS selects Ortec Finance FOLLOWING A rigorous tender, Ortec Finance has been selected as a supplier to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) framework for investment performance evaluation services, offering support to members.
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Issue 33 | September 2017
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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