Download or read book Automatic enrolment in workplace pensions and the National Employment Savings Trust written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Government established NEST as a low-cost pension scheme to help deliver the auto-enrolment programme and to address a market failure in the pensions industry which meant that many employers and employees were unable to access low-cost, good quality pension provision. However, the Committee believes that certain restrictions placed on NEST will create complexity for employers and will disadvantage some employees. The Committee's report recommends that, if state aid rules allow, the Government should remove the following restrictions: the cap on the annual contributions an individual can make to a NEST scheme; and the ban on individuals transferring existing pension pots into NEST. The Committee further urges the Government to proceed with its plans for State Pension reform, introducing a flat-rate State Pension and reducing the level of means-testing without delay. The report also highlights the difficulties and complexity employers and employees currently face in comparing the fees and charges applied by pension providers and recommends that, from 2013 onwards, if some auto-enrolment schemes still have hidden charges, or charges that represent poor value for money, the Government should use its powers to intervene. Auto-enrolment will impose new costs and may be particularly challenging for small employers however the Committee considers that the Government has taken appropriate steps to minimise the impact on businesses through its gradual and flexible approach ("staging and phasing") to implementation. Exempting small employers would create significant complexity, as well as excluding many employees from the benefits of workplace pension saving

Download or read book Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment written by Jeffrey R. Brown and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-12-15 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment analyzes the changing economic and demographic environment in which social insurance programs that benefit elderly households will operate. It also explores how these ongoing trends will affect future beneficiaries, under both the current social security program and potential reform options. In this volume, an esteemed group of economists probes the challenge posed to Social Security by an aging population. The researchers examine trends in private sector retirement saving and health care costs, as well as the uncertain nature of future demographic, economic, and social trends—including marriage and divorce rates and female participation in the labor force. Recognizing the ambiguity of the environment in which the Social Security system must operate and evolve, this landmark book explores factors that policymakers must consider in designing policies that are resilient enough to survive in an economically and demographically uncertain society.

Download or read book Making automatic enrolment work written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-10-27 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current policy is that new duties will be staged in between 2012 and 2016, requiring all employers to designate a pension scheme into which all of their employees, aged between 22 and state pension age, should be automatically enrolled, so long as they are earning above an annual earnings threshold (the Pensions Act 2008 sets this at £5,035, equivalent to £5,732 in today's terms). Upon automatic enrolment, a minimum of eight per cent of earnings within a band would be contributed to the pension, with at least three per cent coming from the employer. This policy is designed to maximise private pension saving by individuals without imposing compulsion. The right to opt out will remain. This review looks at the scope of automatic enrolment and whether a new national pension scheme (National Employment Savings Trust or NEST) needs to be put in place for it to work. One of the most significant recommendations that it makes is that people should only be automatically enrolled once they reach the income tax threshold (which will increase to £7.475 in 2011) but that contributions should be on earnings in excess of the National Insurance earnings threshold (£5,715 in today's prices). There should be no changes to age thresholds and automatic enrolment duties should apply to all employers, regardless of size, as now. Employers should be given three months before auto-enrolment to ease the burden on companies. If staff choose to enrol before the three month period then companies will have to make contributions

Download or read book Improving Governance and Best Practice in Workplace Pensions written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The introduction of auto-enrolment makes rigorous pension scheme governance essential. This Report calls on the Government to reassess the case for establishing one body with sole responsibility for regulating workplace pensions. There are concerns over current gaps in regulation and the potential for further gaps to arise as a result of now having three regulators, the Pensions Regulator; and the new Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, set up to replace the FSA. The Report argues that a single regulator is necessary to ensure that all members of workplace pension schemes are adequately and consistently protected. It also highlights that deferred-member charges and member-borne consultancy charges have the potential to cause serious consumer detriment. It recommends that both are banned by the Government, if significant progress is not made in the very near future by the industry towards ending them. There is particular concern about member-borne consultancy charges and those charges applied to deferred members - people who stop contributing to their pension scheme. The trend towards lower pension scheme charges is welcome. However, a good average is not sufficient and there is potential for consumer detriment in schemes that persist in retaining high charges. The Government should also regularly review its policy on capping charges for auto-enrolment schemes. Consumers are also continuing to lose out when they buy annuities because pension providers are not doing enough to ensure people are aware that they can shop around for the best annuity rate rather than being obliged to buy an annuity from their pension provider.

Download or read book HC 581 Automatic Enrolment to Workplace Pensions written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2016 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the introduction of automatic enrolment in October 2012, almost all larger employers have enrolled their workers in a workplace pension, thereby increasing the number of people saving for retirement. Employer compliance has been high and the proportion of people choosing to opt out from automatic enrolment has been lower than expected. The Department for Work & Pensions, the Pensions Regulator and the National Employment Savings Trust and other pension providers are now facing the more difficult task of supporting 1.8 million small employers through automatic enrolment. They will need to monitor the experiences of small businesses-including 900,000 employers with only 1 or 2 employees-and minimise administrative burdens, while also ensuring that increased enrolment translates into adequate incomes in retirement. We will be returning to this subject, which is of vital importance to both employees themselves and to future governments as they plan for pensions, and we have asked the Department to update us on progress over the next 12 months

Download or read book Governance and Best Practice in Workplace Pension Provision written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Meeting future workplace pension challenges written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-12-15 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK pension landscape is undergoing a transformation. Automatic enrolment will result in millions of people saving for their retirement for the first time. We will see employers taking on new duties to enrol their workers into a pension and contribute to this scheme. Membership of defined contribution (DC) pension schemes will also increase. But the onset of automatic enrolment and the changing pension landscape also brings challenges. To successfully achieve a cultural shift so that pension saving becomes the norm, we need to make sure that money put into pension saving stays there. The short-service refund rules for DC occupational pension schemes work against this principle. It is therefore planned to abolish these rules retain £70 - 130 million per year in pension saving. This will hopefully happen as soon as 2014 provided it is possible to implement an accompanying solution for small pension pot transfers at the same time. This paper presents three broad approaches to initiate debate about how best to address the problem of small pension pots: relatively minor changes to the current voluntary transfer system; automatic consolidation of small pensions in an aggregator scheme; and pensions automatically moving with people from job to job.

Download or read book Auto Enrolment written by Adrian Lee and published by Harriman House Limited. This book was released on 2017-02-27 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Employment Law and Pensions written by David Pollard and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-07-13 with total page 931 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Save time with the only dedicated text on the market that deals with the intersection of pension and employment law issues. Alongside a comprehensive overview of pensions provision in the UK, this title is organised into seven parts to guide you through the distinct issues concerning these intersecting disciplines. These include the obligations of employers, unlawful discrimination, employment contracts, employers' powers and consultation, TUPE and the cessation of employment. The Second Edition has been fully updated to include: - New cases across all seven parts of the work, assessing their impact on practice and procedure, including Walker v Innospec in the Supreme Court and IBM v Dalgeish and Bradbury v BBC in the Court of Appeal - New chapters covering: - disability discrimination and pensions - the definition of pensionable pay in a pension trust - Braganza duties on employers - whether TUPE transfers third party obligations - The impact of Brexit on pensions provision in the UK This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Employment Law and Pensions Law online services.

Download or read book Reinvigorating Workplace Pensions written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The UK's pensions system is need of reform for two primary reasons. Firstly, the UK has an aging population and secondly, working age people are not saving enough to meet their expectations of income on retirement. The Government has already begun to set in train a series of reforms. In particular it has brought forward plans to increase State Pension age; set out proposals to create a single-tier State Pension to provide a firm foundation for saving for retirement; and introduced automatic enrolment into workplace pensions. We do, though, also need to ensure that those people saving privately for their retirement are doing so in high quality schemes. This strategy sets out the key issues which need to be tackled. The reinvigoration objectives include: increase the amount people are saving in pensions; increase the amount people receive for their savings; enable industry innovation to develop products which will give more certainly about pensions; increase transparency; and ensure the sustainability and stability of the UK pension system.

Download or read book Department for Work and Pensions Public Consultation Better Workplace Pensions A Consultation on Charging Cm 8737 written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-10-30 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Government is proposing to introduce a system of automatic pensions transfers to help people to better keep track of their workplace pension savings. The majority of people being automatically enrolled are likely to join the default fund in defined contribution (DC) schemes. It is, therefore, important to ensure that these schemes deliver the best possible value for money. The impact of the charges levied on people's pensions savings over their lifetime can be significant - seemingly small variations in charges can result in a considerable difference in people's final retirement savings. A number of voluntary industry initiatives seeking to improve disclosure of charges information to scheme members and employers have been launched in an effort to reduce the complexity of the product. The Government welcomes these initiatives, but is interested in views on whether further action is required. There are a number of potential options: mandating disclosure to members by widening the disclosure requirements, to include information about charges; standardising disclosure to employers; or disclosure of transaction costs - require disclosure to members, employers, as well as trustees, and independent governance committees (as recommended by the OFT). The Government is also interested in hearing views on whether: a cap on pension scheme charges should be introduced; differential charging between active and deferred members should be banned in DC qualifying schemes; the ban on consultancy charges should be extended from AE schemes to all qualifying DC schemes; adviser commissions set up prior to the introduction of the Retail Distribution Review should be banned in qualifying schemes

Download or read book Pensions and Legal Policy written by Amanda Cooke and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-11 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the historical position of pensions law in the UK and the recent influences which have led to the introduction of Auto-Enrolment and subsequent reforms. Alternative models, such as the US and Australia, are also considered as well as the function of law in bringing about political changes. The question of saving for retirement is of national and international importance and many governments are wrestling with the issue of how to deal with the pension funding crisis. Consequently political policy has, in many cases, combined with behavioural science to inform new laws which have acted to shift the burden from the state into the private sector. Around the world responsibility is being moved onto individuals and employers as the state retreats from provision of state support in retirement; this book offers a sophisticated analysis of the role of legal intervention to facilitate this shift. The book explores the work of behavioural economics, its global influence on understanding financial decision-making and its application to legislation which seeks to influence consumer outcomes. Drawing on qualitative empirical research to explore the experience of implementation of Auto-Enrolment, this timely work considers the interaction with the work of behavioural science to highlight the social costs of the new regulatory regime.

Download or read book Pensions Explained written by Jonquil Lowe and published by . This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide to maximising your pension encourages a hands-on approach and takes a realistic look at how you can safeguard your financial future. Alternative methods of saving are examined, with returns, risks and tax implications clearly outlined. Lowe provides up-to-date advice on how to get the best pension possible.

Download or read book OECD Pensions Outlook 2014 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2014-12-08 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at pension reform, the role of private pensions and retirement savings. Population ageing and longevity risk is examined as are the means of increasing coverage and providing automatic enrolment.

Download or read book Department for Work and Pensions Public Consultation Reshaping Workplace Pensions for Future Generations Cm 8710 written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Reinvigorating workplace pensions1 published last November, the Government set out to explore whether there was scope for a new category of defined ambition (DA) pensions that would complement the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) structures that currently dominate the market. Automatic enrolment and the single-tier State Pension will provide a firm foundation for saving for retirement. But if the current forms of DC pension saving become the default alternative to traditional DB, the pension income of future generations from workplace pensions will be more uncertain than for past generations. Over the last 12 months the DA project - a joint project between DWP and the pensions industry - has been exploring options in a middle ground. The Government proposes that the regulation of workplace pension schemes should not focus on the detail of benefit design but on what is important to the member: ensuring that any promise or guarantee, whether from the sponsoring employer or scheme, provider is delivered. This Government proposes to make it easier for employers to sponsor new pension schemes where benefits accrue on a specified basis (e.g. related to salary); and also to allow additional flexibilities for future accruals only within existing DB schemes, including the possibility of allowing a statutory override to facilitate these changes. The new flexibility will remove constraints from the existing legislative framework while still giving employees the certainty of a pension scheme where the benefits are defined (such as in relation to their salary) with the security of the promise being sponsored by their employer

Download or read book The Single tier Pension written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-01-14 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper outlines the Government's detailed proposition for state pension reform. It follows a consultation on the proposals set out in "A state pension of the 21st century" (2011, Cm. 8053, ISBN 9780101805322). There was consensus that the state pension system needed to be simplified and the aim is to merge the state second pension with the basic state pension, to create one flat-rate payment. The new flat-rate state pension will start in April 2017 at the earliest. The weekly payment will be £144, plus inflation rises between now and 2017. Chapters in this paper cover: the context for reform; the single-tier pension; managing the end of contracting-out; the transition to the single-tier pension; sustainability and assumptions; longer-term sustainability - state pension age. Annexes provide: a brief history of the state pension; faster flat rating - assessment against principles for reform; features of the single-tier pension and specific transitional arrangements; an example pension statement; proposed timetable for implementing the increase in state pension age to 67.

Download or read book The 2022 Pension Answer Book written by STEPHEN J. KRASS and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-21 with total page 2096 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pension Answer Book, 2022 Edition