The Combined Pension Statement service, which enables employers and pension providers to include State Pension information in their annual benefit statements, will be re-launched in early November 2012 on Gov.uk The new government website Gov.uk was released on 17th October. See CIPP News 19 September 2012 for details. It aims to be a simpler, clearer and faster place for people to find government services and information online. Initially, Gov.uk replaces Directgov and Businesslink. Both of these sites have been switched off, but any links users have saved or bookmarked for those sites will still work. In most cases, they will be taken straight to the relevant information on Gov.uk. Employers or organisations who have signposted or plan to signpost people to Directgov for information about pensions can be confident that anyone trying to access Directgov will be automatically redirected to Gov.uk
Improvements and updates to the site will be ongoing. To find some very useful information relating to workplace and state pensions, visit the links below on www.gov.uk .
Workplace Pensions
State Pension
SINGLE-TIER PENSION: A SIMPLE FOUNDATION FOR SAVING
14 January 2013
Following much speculation and debate, the government has published its white paper Single-Tier Pension: A simple Foundation for Saving.
The White Paper details how the government intends to reform the state pension in to a single tier which will be introduced from April 2017 and will affect anyone reaching state pension age from that point.
Pensioners currently in receipt of the State Pension or who will begin to receive the state pension prior to the implementation date of the single-tier pensions will not be affected.
For many employers, the end of contracting out will have two major impacts, one of direct cost, which will see the affected employer paying National Insurance Contributions at a standard rate as opposed to the reduced ‘contacted out rate’, where applicable, which will mean an increase of 3.4 per cent of relevant earnings. The move to a single-tier will also have an administrative impact for employers who currently operate contracted out schemes and the government has committed to continuing to work closely with the pensions industry and employer representatives as implementation approaches. Steve Webb, Minister for Pensions is said” The current state pension system is too complicated and leaves millions of people needing means tested top-ups. We can do better. Our simple, single tier pension will provide a decent solid foundation for new pensioners in an otherwise less certain world, ensuring it pays to save.”
DRAFT PENSION BILL
22 January 2013
The DWP published a Draft Pension Bill on the 18 January 2013. This follows earlier announcements about plans to replace the current State Pension with the single-tier pension.
CIPP Policy News Journal
12/04/2013, Page 286 of 362
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