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

May 1, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

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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Auto-enrolment finally reaches maturity – now let’s tackle problems of data accuracy and low earner overcharging

April 7, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 4 comments

The pensions auto-enrolment programme – which started in 2012 – has finally reached full contribution levels. After seven years, this radical overhaul of UK pension provision will be properly in place. It has been a widely-acclaimed success, with ten million workers newly saving in a pension scheme organised by their employer. But there are urgent issues to address to protect this success. All UK employers must take responsibility for staff pension: Every UK employer must set up and pay into…

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QE is 10 years old – have the side-effects been driving populist anger, Brexit and Trump?

March 4, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 1 comment

Ten years since QE started – has this ‘emergency monetary experiment’ contributed to Brexit, rising populism and anti-capitalism? QE benefits Governments, banks and wealthiest in society and disadvantages younger and less well-off groups. Central Bank policies may have operated as disguised fiscal policy without democratic accountability. QE started ten years ago as an emergency monetary experiment: When the Bank of England (BoE) introduced ‘quantitative easing’, in the teeth of the financial crisis ten years ago, the policy was supposed…

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Today’s news that auto-enrolment has reached the ten million milestone

February 11, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Auto-enrolment has been a huge success so far, but plenty more to do to ensure it works well. Significant milestone reached as 10 million workers are newly saving in a pension scheme but many women and part-timers lose out. Low earners face unfair 25% surcharge for their pension in Net Pay scandal. Incorrect contributions must be corrected urgently to ensure pensions dashboard is reliable. It is great to see the auto-enrolment programme continuing its successful path. So far, it has…

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Amber Rudd is right to warn employers about pension funding – trustees also need to increase their scrutiny too

February 10, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 2 comments

Amber Rudd is right to warn employers to take pension funding seriously. As most schemes are closed, employers have little business interest in the open-ended legacy liabilities – so important for trustees to increase funding sooner rather than later. DWP and Regulator should also encourage trustees to consider corporate finance advice to scrutinise employer business. Trustees, not employers, run investments and control balance of risks. Amber Rudd has today put employers on notice that they must take their pension liabilities…

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Potential Pensions Bombshell as Brexit puts State Pensions for British pensioners in the EU at risk

January 30, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 11 comments

As UK has decided to uprate State Pensions in EU this April, even if there is No Deal, they could agree to uprate all frozen pensions in other countries if they wish to solve this ongoing scandal. Government says State Pensions will only be uprated if host countries reciprocate but is abandoning that rule for Brexit. 340,000 British pensioners would need uprating, while hardly any EU citizens retire to the UK. British pensioners could lose their pension increases if there…

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Brexit and a Second Referendum

January 22, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 3 comments

A mis-selling scandal – not pensions this time, but Brexit! Referendum campaign misrepresented the impacts of leaving the EU – so people should have the right to change their mind. Misleading customers is against the law in most sectors but politicians are not held accountable. We are told the 2016 Referendum was the biggest exercise in democracy this country has ever seen. Really? If democracy is all about deliberate deception, dishonesty and political spin, then the Referendum was certainly a…

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Justice system hit by forced retirement – reduced immigration in an aging population demands new thinking

January 10, 2019 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Justice system in peril as forced retirement at age 70 causing shortage of magistrates. Compulsory retirement in an ageing population is wasting home-grown skills and talent! Recruitment crisis requires new thinking on age discrimination, especially as immigration falls. Mandatory retirement ages are blunt tool and should be replaced by impartial appraisal. Crisis in justice system as number of magistrates has halved: Magistrates are calling for the Government to abandon its policy of forcing them to retire at age 70, introduced…

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Pensions Predictions for 2019

December 26, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 4 comments

What 2019 will bring for Pensions 2018 has seen the start of some important pension policy trends, which will continue into 2019. What is most likely to happen and what still urgently needs to be done? Here are some thoughts. Auto-enrolment program finally fully implemented as pension contributions double in April 2019, amid hopes that the behavioural success will keep opt-out rates low: As pensions auto-enrolment continued to roll out across the country, opt-out rates were unaffected, despite the doubling…

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Pensions Dashboard – let’s make sure we get things right

December 3, 2018 Ros Altmann Comments 0 Comment

Pensions Dashboard must overcome many hurdles and first requirement is to ensure accurate records. Legacy schemes will take years and cost huge sums to convert to electronic format and this has delayed Dashboard project so far. Trying to get all old pensions included on a Pensions Dashboard on day one is doomed to failure. Pensions Dashboard could start with auto-enrolment and State Pension first – but Regulators must ensure pension records are correct. Even recent auto-enrolment data are full of…

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