pensionsandsavings.com

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    From Ros Altmann:economist and pensions,
    investment and retirement policy expert

    • pensionsandsavings.com

    pensionsandsavings.com

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    Author: Ros Altmann

    National Insurance hike should be abandoned – wrong tax, wrong time, and won’t fix the crisis anyway

    National Insurance hike should be abandoned – wrong tax, wrong time, and won’t fix the crisis anyway

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    Government should abandon plan to increase National Insurance in April – it’s the wrong policy at the wrong time and won’t fix social care anyway.  Proposed rise in NI hits lowest earners, employers and the young hardest.  Imposing a new tax on earnings and business, in the eye of a cost of living storm, is wrong.  A better solution would be a new nationwide social care insurance levy on all sources of income, spreading the burden across society more fairly….

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    Correcting State Pension underpayments may require DWP to bring in outside expertise

    Correcting State Pension underpayments may require DWP to bring in outside expertise

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    Government may need private sector experts to help correct State Pension underpayments before more of the women die. The complexity of the calculations mean people can’t work out their State Pension and are totally reliant on Government to pay the right amount. Over-80s and thousands of divorced women should also be urgently assessed to correct underpayments. Interest on arrears and compensation are required to address the injustice. The Public Accounts Committee has issued a damning report highlighting ongoing problems of…

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    Work and Pensions Committee Report is right to focus on helping

    Work and Pensions Committee Report is right to focus on helping

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    Work and Pensions Committee supports pension freedoms but urges Government, industry and Regulators to do far more to help consumers. Report suggests pension savers are left fumbling in the dark due to excessive complexity, disjointed regulation and insufficient guidance or advice. MPs rightly recommend that pension policy should be more about ‘people’ than ‘pension pots’.     Recommendations include: Government and Regulators need research and data on use of pension freedoms Increase take-up of PensionWise guidance – new nudges are not…

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    Pensioners need emergency Manifesto this winter as inflation soars but pensions lag behind

    Pensioners need emergency Manifesto this winter as inflation soars but pensions lag behind

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    Pensioners facing a perfect storm this Winter as fuel prices and inflation soar but pensions fail to keep up.  Government should consider an emergency manifesto to address the living cost crisis for elderly citizens who are most vulnerable to the cold this winter.    Government response must include urgent plans to increase Pension Credit take-up and enable pensioners to afford to heat their homes with reduced prices or increased benefits.  Excess winter deaths among the elderly have averaged tens of…

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    State pension age review needs to consider more flexibility for those in poorest health as average life expectancy masks vast differentials across society

    State pension age review needs to consider more flexibility for those in poorest health as average life expectancy masks vast differentials across society

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    State pension age review needs to consider flexibility to recognise vast differentials in healthy life expectancy.  Ever rising age disadvantages the poorest and least healthy as poorest Brits only stay healthy to around age 50, but wealthiest to age 70.  Wealthiest groups can get even higher pensions if they delay their pension age but poorest who are least likely to have private pensions, cannot get a penny early even after a 45 or 50 years National Insurance record.  Flexibility allowing…

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    Inflation at 5.1% is another blow to pensioners

    Inflation at 5.1% is another blow to pensioners

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    Latest inflation numbers show State Pension rise of 3.1% will leave poorest pensioners struggling.  Pensioners have been stripped of the protection they were promised and many will struggle to afford heating.  The poorest pensioners have lost the earnings inflation protection for Pension Credit that was in law for around 20 years.  The latest inflation figures showing CPI inflation reached a two-year high of 5.1% last month, confirm again that the 3.1% increase for State Pensions is completely inadequate to protect…

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    Why the £86,000 care cap does not ‘fix’ the care crisis and exacerbates inequalities

    Why the £86,000 care cap does not ‘fix’ the care crisis and exacerbates inequalities

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    The £86,000 social care cap is more about protecting the wealthiest than fixing social care. £86,000 cap is not the maximum families will spend on care – they will have to spend well over £100,000 before reaching the cap. The new proposed cap will still take most of the assets from families in areas with lower property values, while helping the wealthiest families keep most of their assets.   The headline is that nobody will have to spend more than £86,000…

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    Ten ways in which the social care proposals, while welcome, fall short of what’s needed

    Ten ways in which the social care proposals, while welcome, fall short of what’s needed

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    Government plans to reform social care are a start, but nowhere near enough to address the scale and scope of the crisis. Stark unfairnesses remain, with inadequate funding for urgently needed staffing improvements (£500million is just £300 per person). There is inadequate funding for prevention measures. The main part of the reforms will help protect the assets of the wealthiest families, not those living in areas with lower property values. With the Health and Social Care Bill coming over to…

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    Today’s inflation numbers show why 3.1% pension increase will be so damaging

    Today’s inflation numbers show why 3.1% pension increase will be so damaging

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    The latest 4.2% CPI rise for October was driven largely by rising household bill, such as electricity, gas and other fuel, after the energy price cap was increased last month. This shows how inadequate the 3.1% rise in State Pensions next year will be. Pensioner poverty was already rising before the pandemic and rising inflation will leave more in desperate straits as they try to pay their basic bills during the coming months.   Today’s CPI inflation numbers confirm again…

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    MPs vote to remove promised protection for pensioners

    MPs vote to remove promised protection for pensioners

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    MPs missed an opportunity to restore trust and instead voted to push more pensioners into poverty.    Government reasons to drop earnings protection for State Pensions and Pension Credit do not stand up to scrutiny.    State Pensions would be higher next year if the triple lock had not been applied and only earnings had been used, but pensioners are told they have been protected!  MPs had a chance to restore some public confidence in their integrity. Sadly, they missed…

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