pensionsandsavings.com

  • PENSIONSANDSAVINGS.COM

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

    • pensionsandsavings.com

    pensionsandsavings.com

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    Category: Paying for Care

    Making the State Pension more flexible should focus on State Pension Age

    Making the State Pension more flexible should focus on State Pension Age

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    State Pension flexibility could be welcome, but for State Pension Age, not amount of pension. Just allowing people to take part of their State Pension, while still requiring them to wait to an ever-rising State Pension age, will not remedy the injustices in the current system. We already have the lowest state pension in the developed world and receiving only part of it will just add complexity, but will not help those in failing health or caring for others. Current…

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    Four Seasons is just latest example of social care crisis which is crying out for funding reform

    Four Seasons is just latest example of social care crisis which is crying out for funding reform

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    Financial restructuring of Four Seasons highlights Social Care funding crisis while Government keeps avoiding urgently-needed reform     Private equity firms and hedge funds are not stable stewards for elderly care Independent Care Home sector has been an accident waiting to happen as financial engineering has driven ownership changes. Care sector also hit by rising wage and pension costs, falling council funding and Brexit-related staff shortages. Elderly Care should not be a financial game – it has people’s lives attached….

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    Social Care and Auto-Enrolment

    Social Care and Auto-Enrolment

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    Auto-enrolment for care funds could help younger workers but not older generations. For babyboomers who’ve already retired, auto-enrolment via employers won’t help. A 21st Century National Insurance system should include later life care as well as pensions. Pensions, ISAs, housing, or other savings might help those already in later life.  Green Paper on social care will need wide range of measures, implemented urgently, to spread burden more fairly within and between generations. The Secretary of State for Social Care has…

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    Care ISAs: Over-60s have £300billion in ISAs which could help care funding crisis

    Care ISAs: Over-60s have £300billion in ISAs which could help care funding crisis

    Comments 1 comment

    Britain’s over-60s have more than £300billion in ISAs which could help solve the care crisis. Over 8million over 60s have £35,000-£40,000 in ISAs. £1trillion+ earmarked to pay future pensions but nothing for future care costs. Government’s should introduce incentives for Care ISA.  Britain faces a funding crisis for elderly care with no money set aside for future care needs: The country cannot cope with the costs of caring for today’s elderly population as more than one million older people who…

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    Don’t hit older workers to pay for social care – need a solution that is fair across and within generations

    Don’t hit older workers to pay for social care – need a solution that is fair across and within generations

    Comments 0 Comment

    Forcing pensioner workers to pay National Insurance is not a solution to care funding crisis Imposing new National Insurance on just one group introduces new unfairness and could be politically damaging Pensioners are not entitled to many of the benefits that National Insurance covers Working past pension age should be encouraged, not penalised to pay for other people’s care How could Government justify forcing pensioner workers to fund other people’s social care while non-working pensioners on huge pensions pay no…

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    As care crisis worsens, Jeremy Hunt has a chance to improve both NHS and Social Care

    As care crisis worsens, Jeremy Hunt has a chance to improve both NHS and Social Care

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    Golden opportunity to address the social care crisis must not be missed. Integration of healthcare and social care can improve the quality of both. Meaningful reform must end artificial and unfair division between dementia and cancer. As the population ages, the country’s care system simply isn’t fit for purpose: Social care available from local authorities is not providing good care for today’s elderly people (a cohort which is currently very small yet is causing such mayhem), and that lack of…

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    Pension freedoms mean pension transfers make more sense

    Pension freedoms mean pension transfers make more sense

    Comments 1 comment

    21 June 2017 Good news: Regulator wakes up to new landscape for pension transfers Advisers encouraged to recognise that transferring out of a final salary scheme could be the right thing to do Pension freedoms have radically improved attractions of Defined Contribution pensions Vital to understand both risks and benefits, rather than assume transfers always wrong The new world of pension freedom and choice paves the way for fresh thinking on transferring out of Defined Benefit pension schemes. Here’s a…

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    Manifesto cost May the election

    Manifesto cost May the election

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    11 June 2017 Tory Manifesto cost May the election Social care proposals alienated core voters AND would have made care crisis even worse There is no silver bullet – care crisis needs a range of solutions The Tory Manifesto was a turning point in the election campaign.  To say the policy announcements on pensions and care were badly thought through would be an understatement. They don’t really seem to have been thought through at all. The combination of means-testing Winter…

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    Budget Comments

    Budget Comments

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    8 March 2017 Another missed opportunity to start addressing social care No new incentives for social care savings and radical reform proposals pushed into Green Paper later this year No proper help for savers – new NS&I bond pays interest rate lower than inflation, so savers lose money Costs of public sector pensions will rise sharply, by nearly 40% between 2015 and 2020 Self employed bearing brunt of tax rises to pay for other measures Addressing Social care crisis: Extra…

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    Help people use pensions and savings to fund social care

    Help people use pensions and savings to fund social care

    Comments 2 comments

    8 February 2017 Care crisis is worse than pensions crisis – but pensions and savings could help fund social care Many baby boomers have pensions and ISAs but no incentive to retain money for care Chancellor’s Budget could consider tax-free pension withdrawals and IHT-free ISAs for care savings Such incentives would let people know they need to prepare for care costs   Have to get real about the scale of care challenge – need combination of public funding, national insurance,…

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