Category Archives: Pensions industry

Rachel Reeves’ pension plan could damage the north, says ex-minister

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Lord Jim O’Neill says small businesses could lose out from merger of local government schemes to create large fund

Government plans to create one of the largest pension schemes in the world from a merger of 87 local authority retirement funds could undermine investment in groundbreaking businesses across the north of England, according to former Treasury adviser Lord Jim O’Neill.

Innovative startup businesses, many of them spun out of universities in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, could lose out if the Treasury creates a big fund interested only in backing large companies, he said.

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Thousands of UK women owed pension payout after ombudsman’s Waspi ruling

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The way women’s state pension age was raised plunged retirement plans into chaos with many now in line for compensation

Thousands of women are owed compensation because of government failings related to the way changes to the state pension age were made, a long-awaited official report has said.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) said those affected were owed compensation but added that that Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had clearly indicated it would “refuse to comply”, which was “unacceptable”.

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Retired teacher’s pension stopped as provider refuses to believe she is not dead

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Payments halted four times and left Eileen McGrath without income over Christmas

A retired teacher has had her pension payments stopped four times because her pension provider repeatedly refuses to accept that she is not dead.

Eileen McGrath, 85, was left without income over Christmas when Teachers’ Pensions, which administers payments on behalf of the UK government, wrongly matched her with a deceased stranger.

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MPs launch inquiry into prosecution of Norton Motorcycles pension fraud

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Regulators to be asked about how £10m scam was investigated, as Guardian Today in Focus podcast raises fresh questions about case

Financial regulators are to be summoned to parliament to explain how they prosecuted the case of a multimillion-pound pensions fraud whose victims have yet to receive compensation and which has not led to anyone serving prison time.

Sir Stephen Timms MP, chair of the work and pensions committee, said he was launching an inquiry into how watchdogs and prosecutors handled the case, in which £10m of pension savings disappeared after being invested in the heritage brand Norton Motorcycles.

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C of E divests of fossil fuels as oil and gas firms ditch climate pledges

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Church pension and endowment funds shed holdings after U-turns by BP and Shell

The Church of England is divesting from fossil fuels in its multibillion pound endowment and pension funds over climate concerns and recent U-turns by oil and gas companies.

The church said it was abandoning oil and gas companies and all firms primarily engaged in the exploration, production and refining of oil or gas by the end of 2023, unless they were in genuine alignment with a 1.5C reduction pathway.

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Budget pension shake-up is £4bn tax giveaway for wealthy, critics say

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Jeremy Hunt criticised for scrapping lifetime allowance and increasing annual contribution cap

The chancellor has been accused of unveiling a £4bn tax giveaway that will benefit the wealthiest people in the UK by dramatically increasing how much they can stash away in pensions while enjoying the full tax benefits.

Jeremy Hunt announced a major shake-up of the rules governing how much people can pay into their retirement pots, which will have no impact on the vast majority of the population but could lead to huge gains for the top few per cent of wealthy, older pension savers. Labour claimed it was a handout for “the richest 1%” and that someone with a £2m pension pot would pay up to £275,000 less in tax as a result.

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Major funds exposed to companies allegedly engaged in Uyghur repression in China

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Report finds stock indexes provided by MSCI include companies using forced labour or constructing surveillance state in Xinjiang

Many of the world’s largest asset managers and state pension funds are passively investing in companies that have allegedly engaged in the repression of Uyghur Muslims in China, according to a new report.

The report, by UK-based group Hong Kong Watch and the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice at Sheffield Hallam University, found that three major stock indexes provided by MSCI include at least 13 companies that have allegedly used forced labour or been involved in the construction of the surveillance state in China’s Xinjiang region.

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The Bank of England’s lifeboat is in choppy waters with its bond buying

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Pensions hedging crisis shows how the City never seems equipped to handle the next big financial hazard

Pension funds have found themselves embroiled in a byzantine world of exotic financial trading that many of them appear to have badly misunderstood.

On Tuesday, a third rescue mission in little more than a fortnight was announced by the Bank of England, which is reprising its role in the 2008 financial crisis as the City’s lifeboat.

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Serco injected £60m to prop up pension fund after market meltdown

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£1bn scheme is latest to scramble to raise cash after chancellor’s tax-cutting mini-budget sparks turmoil

The pension scheme trustees at the government contractor Serco have been forced to tap the company for £60m of emergency support after the UK’s financial markets meltdown this week.

Serco’s £1bn pensions scheme is the latest to scramble to raise cash after a plunge in the pound and a meltdown in UK bond prices triggered calls on fund managers to provide collateral for niche financial products they had taken out to hedge against swings in the value of their investments.

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Bank of England in £65bn scramble to avert financial crisis

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Bank of England left with no action but to intervene after Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget

The Bank of England has been forced into emergency action to halt a run on Britain’s pension funds after the impact of Kwasi Kwarteng’s ill-received mini budget prompted fears of a 2008-style financial crisis.

Threadneedle Street said the fallout from a dramatic rise in government borrowing costs since the chancellor’s statement had left it with no choice but to intervene to protect the UK’s financial system.

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Environment Agency pension fund criticised for owning stakes in UK water firms

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Campaigner Feargal Sharkey says profiteering from firms that dump raw sewage into rivers an ‘obscenity’

The Environment Agency’s pension fund owns stakes in a string of British water firms – despite the watchdog calling for industry bosses to be jailed over shocking pollution levels, the Guardian can reveal.

An analysis of the Environment Agency Pension Fund’s investments shows it holds shares or bonds worth £28m in six of the largest water companies.

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MPs’ pension fund drops Russian-linked investments in protest

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Cross-party group expresses unease about the fund’s stake in HSBC, which has held shares in Moscow’s oil and gas giants

Trustees of the pension fund for members of parliament have agreed to sell all investments linked to Russia after a cross-party group of more than 60 MPs raised concerns about connections to Russian oil and gas companies.

The trustees met last Thursday, having received the MPs’ letter, and agreed to act immediately to ensure the fund was cleansed of both direct and indirect Russian interests.

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Sun, sea, safety: Greece woos Europe’s pensioners with 7% income tax rate

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Athens offers generous tax incentives to lure retirees – and boost its own struggling economy

Most countries want to attract the young and the willing – entrepreneurs with ideas, students looking to learn, people prepared to do the jobs locals turn down. Greece, though, has decided on a different approach, by making a play for Europe’s retirees.

“The logic is very simple: we want pensioners to relocate here,” says Athina Kalyva, head of tax policy at the Greek finance ministry, who has helped design a scheme to get people to do just that. “We have a beautiful country, a very good climate, so why not?”

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Disability charity boss jailed after stealing from pension fund

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Patrick McLarry sentenced to five years for defrauding scheme of more than £250,000

The former head of a charity has been jailed for five years after he admitted defrauding a pension scheme for workers with disabilities and using the money to buy houses in England and France.

Patrick McLarry took more than £250,000 from the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled and used it to buy homes for himself and his wife and pay off a debt for a pub lease.

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