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Carillion suggests some firms treat pension debt as ‘optional’. Did lenders demand pension fund should be sacrificed as condition of bank loan? Trustees and Pensions Regulator must be consulted before scheme security is compromised. Totally unacceptable to insist pension security plays second fiddle – these liabilities have people’s lives attached. Serious questions about banks demands to reduce pension funding as condition of new loans: Evidence is emerging today which suggests that Carillion’s banks insisted further lending to the company was…

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Pension Protection Fund can cope with Carillion. Concern that a hard Brexit might lead to PPF facing difficulties. The Carillion pensioners will see much of their pension replaced by the Pension Protection Fund (but future increases will be lower).  However, those not yet at pension age or who took early retirement may lose at least 10-20% of their promised pension. The PPF has budgeted for some big schemes to fail and can manage the onboarding of all Carillion’s pension schemes….

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Well done to the PPF – more money for the pension scheme and many jobs reprieved PPF Toys’R’Us tactics have sent strong signal to other scheme sponsors to take pension promises more seriously It is good to see the Pension Protection Fund challenging corporate sponsors at Toys’R’Us and managing to get more money into the pension scheme. Its judgment that the company could indeed afford to pay, despite its protestations that this was impossible, has proven correct. This has sent…

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Toys’R’Us pension woes highlight risks in employer pension promises Most private companies cannot shoulder open-ended multi-decade liabilities In coming years, more employers will look to offload their pension schemes – or be bankrupted by them Toys’R’Us is the latest casualty in the UK defined benefit pension crisis, highlighting yet again that private sector employer pension promises cannot always be relied upon. The Government recently concluded that most employers can afford their pension deficits, but I believe this is too complacent….

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4 December 2017 Rise in pensioner poverty deeply concerning Poorest pensioners falling behind because triple lock doesn’t protect Pension Credit More older women in poverty as they have lower state and private pensions than men Recent reductions in pensioner poverty are going into reverse: Figures released today by the Joseph Rowntree Trust point to a worrying rise in poverty among both children and pensioners. Pensioner poverty has reduced significantly in recent years, but this trend seems to have gone into…

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13 September 2017 Government failing to recognise problem of low earners losing out in auto-enrolment Companies using Net Pay schemes are not treating low earners fairly Many low paid women are being forced to pay 25% more than they should for their pension One pension provider is taking the moral high ground – Now:Pensions is paying these workers their tax relief I am delighted to see that Now:Pensions has confirmed it will give its low-paid customers the tax relief that…

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