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Wonderful news: Barclays to waive interest charges on arranged overdrafts

March 25, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 2 comments

WELL DONE TO BARCLAYS – FIRST BANK TO AGREE TO WAIVE OVERDRAFT CHARGES It will not charge customers using arranged overdrafts from Friday till end April 2020 Congratulations to Barclays Bank for being the first to announce it will suspend interest charges for its customers who need to dip into their arranged overdraft facilities. Until now, even those people using arranged overdrafts were facing penal interest charges of around 40% a year. Now, the bank says its customers…

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Emergency measures for pensions to help protect customers from scams and accelerate Pensions Dashboard

March 23, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 2 comments

Two important pension crisis measures to help protect consumers and improve records: Stop all pension transfers for six months. Ensure pension administrators start to reconcile records, cleanse and validate data to improve accuracy of pension information. These two emergency measures are designed to stabilise pension schemes, avoid further losses to scammers and improve the reliability of pension data, so that accurate past records and a reliable dashboard will be more quickly and readily achieved. Put All Pension Transfers on hold…

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Banks should immediately cut record high credit card interest rates to 0.5% and reduce overdraft rates to help customers weather this crisis

March 23, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 1 comment

Two suggestions for banks to introduce immediately to help customers cope with the current crisis. Reduce credit card interest rates to 0.5% Abandon plans to increase overdraft interest rates to nearly 40% Credit card interest rates are at record highs, despite the bank rate at a record low: Credit card interest rates are higher now than they were before the 2008 financial crisis. Unfortunately, banks have been continuing to increase the interest rates charged to credit card customers, even as…

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Pension Scams – risks rising if more people at home and markets so weak

March 18, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Pension scam risks increase with people at home and markets in meltdown. More people likely to be caught by cold-calling or online scammers. Urgent Regulatory action and early warning systems required to improve consumer protection. Parliamentarians support new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pension Scams. More people at home gives more easy targets for fraudsters: As more people are forced to stay at home during the current coronavirus crisis and investment markets have plunged, the risks of cold-calling criminals or…

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Huge Gender Pensions Gap – International Women’s Day is a chance to highlight need for action on women’s pensions

March 8, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 3 comments

Gender Pensions Gap much worse than Gender Pay Gap. Women lose out in both State and Private pensions because of their social role. Budget could fix pension system cracks that women are falling through. Let’s close gender pensions gap and encourage women to take responsibility for their pensions. Ahead of International Women’s Day, I thought it might be timely to write about the shocking gap between men and women’s pensions, which still exists in 21st Century Britain. Women are the…

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Recent research from Irwin Mitchell and CEBR provides new insight into Elderly Care Crisis

March 5, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Recent research from Irwin Mitchell and CEBR provides new insight into Elderly Care Crisis. Chancellor needs to announce measures in the Budget to encourage savings and Care ISAs. Urgent action to plan ahead can’t come soon enough. The aging population requires extra resources for care, yet no money is yet set aside for future needs. We’ve been talking about the care crisis for years, but despite reviews, Royal Commissions and even legislation, no meaningful reform has been introduced, as the…

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ABI release on pension freedoms – customers need independent guidance or advice, not a provider’s helpline

February 25, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 1 comment

ABI report confirms that the pensions industry needs to do more to ensure customers are properly informed and protected. Pension provider helplines are no substitute for impartial, independent guidance and advice. Pension Schemes Bill offers an opportunity for Government to introduce requirements for better customer protection against premature or fraudulent transfers. First line of defence would see providers ask relevant questions to help identify scams. Second line of defence would be ensuring people have impartial guidance or…

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Pensions tax relief changes – legacy of Gordon Brown’s pension raid should be a warning to the new Chancellor

February 20, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Removing higher rate tax relief from pensions is a lose-lose proposition which helps nobody and hurts millions. Reforming pension incentives is enormously complicated and Treasury should beware of unintended consequences. Recent changes to Pension Allowances designed to reduce pension tax relief for higher earners fuelled an NHS crisis, showing the dangers of chasing political headlines and short-term cost saving. Government should not be undermining saving incentives when debt is already at record levels. Any reform of tax relief should improve…

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

February 12, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 3 comments

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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Social Care crisis – shocking figures reveal discrimination against privately-run care homes

February 11, 2020 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Shocking figures suggest councils are discriminating against privately-run or charity care homes, which is worsening the care crisis. Local authorities pay up to 60% more for same care in council-run homes while refusing to cover the costs of elderly residents in private or charity-run care homes. Figures show local authorities paying only around £450 a week to independent homes, but over £700 a week for the same care in local council-run care homes. CQC seems to be failing in its…

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