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Pensions Regulator online
I tried to add the auto-enrolment service to my agent's online account. They couldn't do it because I am based in France with a French postcode despite the fact I advise a number of UK employers. They were not interested in providing a solution so have effectively placed an obstacle between me and my clients. A poor state of affairs and very amateurish.
Battle weary?
Unlike the British army it would appear that the Roman version is going from strength to strength. The only question is when will they retire; when they are centenarians or somewhat earlier?
In passing, those long serving centurions must be made aware that where they have sought protection from an LTA charge and stopped contributions that auto-enrollment most certainly does affect them and will do so every three years. I think it disgraceful that there is no 'repair' mechanism in place for anyone who fails to continue to opt out of this government strong arming tactic.
For those who have found it difficult ot save while on active duty and are now small or late savers hoping to take the lot i.e. sub £18k as cash under the Trivial Commutation rules could also find themselves auto'd in and locked into taking just the standard 25% as cash and a piddly pension with the rest.
Stand Easy
I have just spotted an announcement of two days ago of great benefit to those withearlier protection and affected by auto-enrolment: see http://www.ft.com '
'Pension concession for higher earners'
National Insurance
Why doesn't the government deduct money from people's income and invest it for their pensions? That way, no profits would leak out to the corrupt private sector. They could call it "National Insurance" and "State Pension".
Singapore
I'm not sure if this is still the case, but I remember reading this a few years ago and thinking that the Singaporean method was a good idea and could be adapted in the UK.
Basically, every person had their own "government account" . A set percentage of their annual income was paid into this account as a minimum contribution; you could draw down from this account for a set number of things, one of which was an income after retirement. The best part of this was that whatever monies were left in an individual's "account" when they died were passed onto family members as part of their own "account".
Each year everyone received a statement detailing the value to date of their account!
If this can be done in Singapore, surely something of this nature could be done here in the UK?
The costs of auto-enrolment for small business employers will end up driving many of them to the wall. It shouldn't be yet another tax that businesses have to pay to employ someone!
Quote: "There’s no escaping
Quote: "There’s no escaping the fact that the 30,000 companies with staging dates in the four months after April 2014 add a serious sense of urgency to overcoming the complexities and capacity issues that clearly exist within the sector."
This highlights the need to get everything sorted very early. We say to start thinking about your Automatic Enrolment responsibilities as far as 6 months before your staging date, just so you don't get caught out.
Also, it will certainly be interesting to see the value of the 'average' pension for opt-ins and opt-outs of the scheme.
PK Group