Pension Crisis Threatens Young | Personal Finance

Millions Are Set to Flee Pension Poverty in UK
DAILY EXPRESS: THE pension crisis could force millions of older workers into a “grey flight” out of the UK because they cannot afford to retire at home.

With less than half the 24 million- strong workforce saving for old age, many will be hit by a huge slump in living standards when they stop earning.

They face high inflation, soaring energy bills and falling annuity payments. Many private sector workers have been locked out of generous final salary pensions in the run-up to retirement.

But instead of facing poverty in Britain, they will abandon family and friends and move abroad to make ends meet, pension experts warned yesterday.

Steve Wilkie, retirement specialist at Responsible Equity Release, said: “We are teetering on the edge of a retirement abyss. Forget the brain drain, this is the grey drain. Britain is not a Third World country but tell that to the millions approaching retirement with little or no savings, facing the rest of their lives on a paltry state pension. Read on and comment » | Sarah O’Grady | Saturday, March 03, 2012

'All Final Salary Pension Schemes Will Close Under New EU Rules'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: All of Britain's remaining final salary pension schemes will be forced to close if the EU brings in new rules designed to make their funding more secure, unions, employers and pension schemes have warned.

Many businesses could also be pushed into insolvency by European pension proposals, risking significant job losses, three industry bodies have warned.

In a letter to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, ahead of EU directives due this week, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) warned that the new rules would have a disastrous impact.

"By demanding dramatic increases in funding from employers, the commission's plans would – at best – force all remaining defined benefit schemes to close and – at worst – push many businesses into insolvency, leading to significant job losses," they wrote. Read on and comment » | Richard Evans | Monday, February 13, 2012

Australian Government Backs British Pensioners' Rights
THE TELEGRAPH: The European Court of Human Rights recently found against British expat pensioners in Australia and elsewhere who sought to have their state pensions index-linked, as they already are for their peers in the EU and the United States.

Jenny Macklin MP, Australian minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, said: "This decision is another blow to the 250,000 UK pensioners living in Australia who paid their contributions into the UK National Insurance fund in good faith.

"The Australian government believes this policy is discriminatory. We have been actively lobbying the UK government on this issue. I raised this issue face-to-face with the then UK Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions. The Australian government will continue to pursue this matter.

"The UK's policy severely disadvantages UK pensioners living in Australia as, over time, their UK pensions have declined in real value.

"This policy continues to place an increasing burden on all Australian taxpayers, as the Australian government picks up the tab for around 170,000 UK pensioners who also receive means-tested Australian pensions – estimated at about A$100 million (£60 million) per year in additional social security payments."

Australia terminated its social security agreement with the UK in 2001 because of the issue.

Ms Macklin added: "I congratulate the pensioners for their tenacity and dedication in fighting hard for a fair go. The Australian government will continue to support UK pensioners living in Australia."

The European Court of Human Rights has dashed the hopes of around 500,000 expat pensioners living with frozen UK state pensions abroad by throwing out their appeal to try to get their pensions increased in line with inflation.

However, the fight is not over, as the expat pensioners have the support of the Australian government in trying to change the UK's stance on the issue. >>> Alison Steed | Monday, April 05, 2010

Send the Filthy Rich Culture Packing – with No Pension
TIMES ONLINE: The filthy rich, as Peter Mandelson affectionately calls them, are different. It is not just that they’re rich but that there’s something about being extremely rich that blurs ordinary perspective in all but the most exceptional people. Power may corrupt, but extreme wealth blinds and deafens.

One of the many glaring pieces of evidence for this, available in abundance these days, is the inability of Sir Fred Goodwin to see himself as others see him, or to see his astonishing payoff as others see it. Fred the Shred quite clearly does not feel any of his vast pension pot is undeserved, even though he presided over record losses at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

He is not ashamed to demand huge sums of money, as of right, from taxpayers on low and modest incomes; he seems to feel they ought to reward his incompetence. Thoughts of shame or making amends don’t seem to enter his mind. He even feels he has made several sacrifices or “gestures” in his severance agreements, which squares it.

In this, Goodwin displays the same plutocratic blindness as another top banker currently receiving unwelcome public attention – Eric Daniels, the chief executive of Lloyds, who, defending bonuses in front of the Commons Treasury committee last month, appeared to consider his annual salary of more than £1m as “modest”. When asked why banks such as Lloyds, rescued by the taxpayer, should pay any bonuses at all, he said that “the recipients of bonuses that I am referring to are people like you and me. They have relatively modest salaries”. Modest? Like you and me? Not.

Like Goodwin, Daniels appears to have parted company with reality as most of us see it. I can well imagine that Daniels may have felt a bit peeved at times by the thought that there are lots of bankers and businessmen out there who are indeed paid hugely more than £1m a year. He must meet them constantly at smart parties and convocations of the great and the good in sunspots. It must be quite irritating. >>> Minette Marrin | Monday, March 2, 2009

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