Ask the Pensions Minister about the future of pensions

jono_from_leejaberwackee

Under the Labour government no extra pension in 2010 was paid on the "additional pension " that had been accrued when working. This was another trick delivered by Gordon Brown's Treasury to save money against Pensioners.

Under our present Government will this be reinstated for the 2011/2012 tax year.

jacquiel67

I am a 70 yearold pension and have a mortgage on a fixed rate of 6.49%, which meant I never benefited from the interest rate cuts. I was in receipt of Pension Credit but this has now been stopped,leaving me over £40 a month worse off. I am now liable for council tax and will not receive the extreme cold weather payments, because of this.

kop_blade9

I spent 13.5 years paying into a pension scheme at my company.
The managing director decided he needed to buy new equipment and took £450000 to pay for this from the pension fund. Shortley after I left the company and was told that as it was underfunded I could only transfer 50% of my fund. I decided to leave the my fund and transfer it later as the company promised to pay the money back into the fund.
Three years later the fund is £750000 in arrears and the company closed down the scheme sharing the fund out between members.
My 13.5 years of saving resulted in a pension pot of £400.

I started working for the University and joined their pension scheme thinking that this would be a more safer fund.
Fifteen years later the pension scheme is being frozen and we are now being moved onto a scheme with far less benefits.

My question is why, legally, can the employers do what they like with our pension money?
There should be a law ringfencing this money to safegaurd the future of the employees and forcing the employers to keep the fund financed instead of allowing them to take interest free loans for their own benefit and in the case of the University taking payment holidays and then moaning because it is underfunded and we all then have to pay more.
My great fear is that I will end up with little or no pension at all despit taking all the "good advice" and paying a into a pension scheme for nearly 30 years.

joan66

Hi Martin,

I have heard that the government were considering increasing the pension rate to £140 for ALL pensioners. I hope this does not mean that our SERPS and Graduated Pensions will be swallowed up in this. If it does, it will mean a reduction in pension for my husband of £25 per week. (and I would presumably also loose the right to inherit 50% of the £65 SERPS my husband currently gets, should he pre-decease me).
I hope the Miinister will take all this into account before it is fixed in stone, and doesn't repeat the misjudgement the previous government made when they did away with the 10% Tax Band - which made many pensioners worse off.

lilacsprite

I have paid 30 years worth of contributions and can no longer add any value to my pension so I have to continue paying the contributions to pay for someone else's pension now.

Then I find out becuase i am female i get less than if i were male because someone has decided that every female should be penalised for having children whether they have them or not.

If the government wants to prevent inequality in the workplace then maybe this is somewhere to start

MistaSooperAngry

I have a lifelong freind who is an ethical pensions salesman. I also have a lifelong associate who I would now not trust as far as I can breath, who sold me a pension from a questionablle outfit (based in the city) that eventually went out of business. I ceased payments a few years after inception having seen there apalling fees and returns. I had another fund, with the 3rd biggest provider, devalued by over 30%, a few years from maturity. No tangible reason, but their senior managers pay rises were breathtaking.

The entire financial industry needs far closer scrutiny & regulation, and it's regulators totally open to the public. And we must never allow any of their people into the nuclear one, unless we want an instant solution to global warming.

This industry is and has been rife with massive rip offs. What assurance do we have that the government's scheme is being managed any better?

David_Skelton

Hello
I have just retired at the age of 73, having had to work past normal retiring age in order to manage. However, there must be quite a number of ex servicemen like me who served for 12 years or more in the 1950s and 60s, and who don't receive any pension for that at all. I served 14 years in total, which, in pension terms, is time wasted.

midnightfunkygibbon

I understand the proposed changes to pensions are not expected to become law until summer 2011. As a consequence tools such as Pension Calculators are not going to be updated til then, so how can we plan for pensions without knowing the full details? As an example, my wife born May 1953 was due to get her state pension in July 2016, but where can we find out now what the new date will be?

chillshill

From what I have read the new proposed pension of of £140pp will only apply to new pensioners.
It would appear that we who have already retired and receiving very poor pensions as compared with the rest of europe will not qualify.
Surely this can only lead to a them and us situation with us being the poor relations and a two tier pension.
Why in the name of common sense cannot this be applied to all.
Future new pensioners should be by then far better off than the present pensioners.
Surely this cannot be fair !!!!

smarttips

Hiya,
Please can you ask why successive governments keep advising us that we should all be paying into pension funds without recognising that some of us need every penny we can scrape together to get on to the property ladder? I am now in my 40s and have never paid into a pension since I am still trying to accumulate a deposit big enough to enable me to get my own property. Until the housing issue is sorted and I can get a mortgage together with an affordable repayment plan, it seems nonsensical tying up money in a pension. Having said that, once I have a mortgage, I'll then be keen to get pension contributions underway. I hope the Pensions Minister can highlight this issue to the Housing Minister and together they can drive forward a solution.
Thanks,
Tim