MSE News: Ed Miliband attacks high pension charges

gadgetmind

Statement A:

Moby wrote: »

They are not all stupid,naive, ignorant etc.

Statement B:

Fact is they are not interested in thinking that far ahead and tying money up that they can't get access to for years

In the light of statement B, perhaps we all need to ponder on how accurate statement A is?

jamesd

Moby, do you believe that any of these statements made in one of those is true:

• Save into a pension and you will probably* be forced to use 75 per cent of the pot to buy an annuity
• *Until 6 April 2011, everyone was forced have to buy an annuity with their pension pot by the time they hit age 75.
• But new rules mean that those with a provable total income of £20,000 a year do not have to comply [by buying an annuity by age 75]

The truth:

After the Labour government introduced Alternatively Secured pensions in 2006 it was not required to buy an annuity. There was and is no £20,000 requirement to avoid buying an annuity. The £20,000 lets you take out you whole pension pot as a lump sum if you want to.

The stories you're referencing aren't a reliable source of accurate information.

jem16

Moby wrote: »

Typical smarmy comment.

Not at all smarmy, just factual. If you have a defined benefit scheme you are not going to be bothered by charges.

Fact is most of the people I work with have not taken advantage of the LGPS scheme, especially young people. They are not all stupid,naive, ignorant etc.

If any of my young colleagues did not take advantage of their public sector scheme, that's exactly what I would be calling them and would be trying to educate them otherwise.

How many other pensions have you got?

dunstonh

Fact is most of the people I work with have not taken advantage of the LGPS scheme, especially young people. They are not all stupid,naive, ignorant etc. Fact is they are not interested in thinking that far ahead and tying money up that they can't get access to for years and is at the mercy of changes of Govmt policy or hidden charges they are unaware of . Its not about 'educating themselves' in many cases. They often have different priorities and have a lack of faith in what is on offer! The washing machine analogy is simplistic because it does not acknowledge this reality.

I'm afraid they stupid and ignorant if they havent joined.

There are scandals upon scandals almost every day.

Yet no-one sees the scandals apart from you.

These pages are therefore awash with questions and uncertainty.

as is the case with every section of the board. Including those that cover washing machines.

If pensions were really 'perfectly clear' why have I often been given completely contradictory advice by so called 'experts', IFA's etc?

Investing is about opinion. There are over 50,000 investment options and an infinite variation possible. You shouldnt expect to get consensus. Also, times change. What one thought was best a year ago may not be what they consider best now.

why is there so much controversy?

There isnt that much controversy. Just media scaremongering.

Every area of life has issues and problems. Have you not ever seen a media article cover something in your walk of life and thought that it does not match reality or tries to present rare extremes as the norm?

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/p...se-theirs.html

I have never seen any hidden charges in modern pension scheme. Notice how the article doesnt give any examples.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/p...efer-ISAs.html

Pensions and ISAs have the same investment options and the same charges. So, when you see an article telling you that you can invest in vanguard funds in an ISA instead of a pension then you see that poor quality reporting that exists and the agenda that the media has. Indeed, there is a link on that page that applauds Miliband for taking up the Financial Mail crusade on charges.

This is just populist spin by Miliband to appeal to the stupid and ignorant who cannot see past the headlines and believe everything they read in the papers.

andysdad_2

Moby wrote: »

Sorry don't agree at all. Pensions and their charges are about as clear as mud. Only vested interests and 'in the know' people understand them. Secondly after the events of recent years I think many people have lost faith in financial 'products' and those who peddle them!



http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2094841/Pick-wrong-pension-watch-charges-strip-40-000-nest-egg.html

You are making this comment on a website devoted to giving people advice on money matters on a forum where many of those "vested interested " parties come to help people if they dont understand. :T
Rather than criticise, use the website to educate yourself as many of us do and then you can help others. That way society improves, more people are financially literate and will have better lives as a result

Moby

Quote Jamesd

The stories you're referencing aren't a reliable source of accurate information.

Fair enough... but there is a lot more there than just that.

andysdad wrote: »

You are making this comment on a website devoted to
giving people advice on money matters on a forum where many of those "vested
interested " parties come to help people if they dont understand. :T

That's right.

Rather than criticise, use the website to educate yourself as many of us do and
then you can help others. That way society improves, more people are
financially literate and will have better lives as a result

Read what I said. The advice is often contradictory and about as clear as mud. The system needs radical reform. Besides those links I found contradict the narrow clique on here that all thank each other for agreeing with a post they put on and they all tend to be ...lets say..... right of centre politically. There is a view prevalent amonst these people that unless you agree with their view of finances you are ignorant or stupid. I can ignore that ....but when they stray into politics...you begin to see vested interests at play and a lack of grasp of wider issues. Its hard to resist jumping in then!

dunstonh

Besides those links I found contradict the narrow clique on here that all thank each other for agreeing with them.

Those links have already been discredited. Yet you ignore that.

Besides... its my 'education' on this site which informs my views

So why are you ignoring the things posted on this site?

The advice is often contradictory

How many times have you sought advice and over what timescale and what class of adviser to have come by that opinion?

jamesd

Moby wrote: »

Fair enough... but there is a lot more there than just that.

Yes, but that should help to illustrate the general quality of the information there. It's OK as a place to pique interest and start learning more about something but it's not great to use it as the only thing to make a decision. It does do a good job of illustrating part of your points, that there's a great deal of misinformation and misunderstanding about, though.

Moby wrote: »

they all tend to be ...lets say..... right of centre politically.

You might find it interesting that the things I mentioned were done by the last Labour government. Personally I've been rather more impressed by what that government did on pensions than what this one has done so far.

sheffield_lad

Why is Ed bothered? He only cares about public sector workers and they already have the best pensions in the country? When has Labour ever been interested in helping the tax pay / private sector worker.

Moby

:)jamesd excepted from the following.....
Howee makes my point for me .....I bet none of you will challenge that rubbish ....he's actually been thanked for it! All I'm saying is that remember there are many people of different political opinions that read these boards, including many from the public sector!
Consider the LIBOR scandal.....the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a daily borrowing rate set by a group of banks for ten currencies and for different financial instruments.
That interest rate determines the prices we pay in car loans, credit card loans, savings and even mortgages. The Economist now estimates it sets the rate for about $800 trillion worth of financial products – about ten times the size of the world economy. The smallest change in the Libor rate is worth millions, perhaps billions, of dollars.We've already had Barclays execs admitting manipulating the rate and were emailing each other in self congratulatory fashion while doing it...the real inquiry has yet to begin! we now hear allegations in today's Telegraph that the oil companies have been rigging petrol prices..........but of course many on here have the Daily Mail view of the world. Its all the unions and public service workers fault:rotfl: