[Closed] What just happened to Pensions?

That your Mrs has spent it on Smoke and Bookers? 😆

No idea, that last I heard over the weekend is the Georgieboy isn't going ahead with the proposed changes he had planned...

I think you need to get hold of the presentation wot you missed.

I missed a presentation at work

Is the presentation not available on your intranet/HR site or whatever.

At risk of what exactly?

Not knowing what is going on.

you just donated it all to the SNP support campaign.

Better get the presentation - sounds more specific to your pension scheme than what the old boys network have done\not done to make the rich even richer 🙂

"Smoke Tabs, Eat Bacon, Die Young", pension problem solved. Wonder if any Westmonster Mogul will ever have the balls to use that as a slogan?

🙂

and apparently I'm "at risk".

At risk of what exactly?

Sounds like you missed the redundancy meeting?

Else it was a sales pitch, and, like the rest of us, you're at risk of not having enough money to keep you in continental cars and sunglasses in retirement. 🙂

Lack of NHS funding will eventually deal with aging population and pensions problems. 🙁

Apparently the average UK pension pot on retirement is £30K or so.

meanwhile we're all buying Audis and 2nd homes on credit

oops

Well the good news is that Osbourne has delayed his huge £30bn tax grab on pensions (at least until after the Brexit vote).

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/04/george-osborne-backs-down-on-radical-pension-reform

The bad news is that most people don't actually have one and will die in the poor house (which will be out sourced to Serco and means tested, so only the half poor get gruel and bread, whilst the real poor will just be dumped in mass graves).

I just got a letter to say that:

"Our Scottish Widows Pension Scheme currently includes an ‘Active Member Discount’. This means that employees who make regular contributions into their pension scheme have lower rates of charges than employees who do not.

New Government rules now mean that Scottish Widows can no longer offer this type of dual charge for qualifying workplace pension schemes after April 5th, 2016.

This means that any regular contributions that are made from April 6th will be replaced with a new single charge.

What does this mean for you?

- If you currently make regular contributions into your pension plan then you may see a small increase in your plan charges, of up to 0.05% each year. Ignoring changes in plan value, over a one-year period, this means a small charge increase of 50p for every £1,000 of pension savings."

Anything to do with that?

so only the half poor get gruel and bread

But I'm on paleo? I need to speak to someone about this, do you have a social media manager?

Anything to do with that?

Probably worse, out company use Hargreaves Landsdown.

But I'm on paleo?

Just opt to be dumped in a mass grave, that's about as Paleo as it gets.

Probably worse, out company use Hargreaves Landsdown.

I bet they're not cheap! They have weekly junk mailings to fund for a start! (Just moving my SIPPs elsewhere as the junk mail is really pissing me off).

Pensions tax is changing. If you earn more than £150k you get hit, but it's actually triggered at a lower level than that (like £110k)

Has a big impact on how much you can save (and get tax breaks)

To summarise:

If you're under the age of 55 then I'm afraid you need to face up to an uncomfortable reality....

You're never going to retire. You'll work until you drop. The entire pension industry is/was a massive ponzi scheme that will collapse way way before you get anywhere near what we'll still quaintly refer to as 'retirement age'

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news/reality

Pensions tax is changing

Some more detail might be useful!

The main changes everyone was fearing (loss of higher rate tax relief at source) has now been ruled out of the March budget.

[quote=brooess spake unto the masses, saying]Apparently the average UK pension pot on retirement is £30K or so.
meanwhile we're all buying Audis and 2nd homes on credit
oops

Well, now we can get our pension pot in cash at 55 and spend it on an Audi without needing credit. Problem solved!!!

The entire pension industry is/was a massive ponzi scheme that will collapse way way before you get anywhere near what we'll still quaintly refer to as 'retirement age'

Not really. We used to have final salary pensions, which put the financial burden of pension funding on the employer, who had to make up any deficit if the investments under performed etc. We have now changed to defined contribution, which puts all the burden and responsibility on the employee. Combine this with stagnating wages, insecure jobs, insane house prices and a transfer of wealth to the rich and no one is saving enough, which means they will basically die in poverty and their corpse will be eaten by rats long before anyone discovers it.

Basically you are now responsible for your own future. Your shite life cant be blamed on other people.

You are Iain Duncan Smith and I claim my food bank voucher!

😀

The entire pension industry is/was a massive ponzi scheme

You are thinking of state pensions. The pensions industry in the main provides schemes that are funded in advance. Trouble is employers no longer want to pay for retirement benefits, governments want a cut and employees don't think about their retirement they just want a new car and some shades 8)

The entire pension industry is/was a massive ponzi scheme that will collapse way way before you get anywhere near what we'll still quaintly refer to as 'retirement age'

Err, no. Yes the state pension works this way and always has, and is rapidly becoming unsustainable. But no-one can live on this alone, and private pensions are different. Final salary/defined benefit schemes are required to hold assets against their future liabilities and if they're not fully funded they are required to have a plan to become so (though not all will be successful in this regard). Defined contribution schemes, which the majority of us have, are what they are - you pay money in, it gets invested, you can control where it goes if you wish. Just because you choose not to understand them doesn't automatically make them bad.

The trouble is that our modern breed of politicians see the vast sums of money (£trillions, literally) that are tied up in pension plans and think "I need that more than you". Actually they don't, and anyway they'll waste most of what they take. It started with that useless wnaker Brown and Gideon is, frankly, even worse.

Pensions tax is changing. If you earn more than £150k you get hit, but it's actually triggered at a lower level than that (like £110k)

We all got a glossy letter from our pension provider at work explaining this last week.
Won't be troubling me as I don't earn £110k P/A (or even half that) or have £800k in my pension pot.

we have one of these meetings every year.

"first the bad news: we'll be taking more money (again), and you'll have to work even longer (again) before you retire"

"now the good news: you can give us even more money, if you choose to"

which all sounds pretty rubbish to me, but it gets even worse:

let's pretend that we're ok working till we die, who's going to employ all these extra old people? it's hard enough getting a job in your 50's, never mind early 70's.

Trouble is employers no longer want to pay for retirement benefits,

Generally what happens when you weaken collective bargaining (Unions), the employers just keep reducing the terms and the employee suffers. Although we did introduce tax credits to make it easier for employers to pay less than it costs to survive so that Sports Direct etc can continue in business without their staff starving to death.

let's pretend that i'm ok working till i die, who's going to employ a 68 yr old metrology engineer with no teeth and progressive blindness?

You'll either be dumped in a mass grave or turned into butter, all depends on how IDS is feeling that week...

Apparently the average UK pension pot on retirement is £30K or so

Is that true? If so, that's scary for a lot of folk.

Yet another "pay cut" 🙄

My NI contributions going up by 1.4%

[url= http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/8.%20Public%20Sector%20Factsheet.pdf ]http://www.sppa.gov.uk/Documents/8.%20Public%20Sector%20Factsheet.pdf[/url]

The pension issue is very scary indeed, not helped by the prospect of v poor returns on investments going forward thanks to deliberate financial repression.

Is that true? If so, that's scary for a lot of folk.

Seems like a lot of people have had their heads in the sand!

Yet another "pay cut"

My NI contributions going up by 1.4%

Lucky you. My company have used a loophole in that NI contribution issue and I'm now paying 'their' 3.4% NI as well as the additional 1.4%...

I'm sure I read the c £30k somewhere reliable recently. Interestingly enough, trying to find some stats from a reliable source has proved difficult - all I could find were these two. Either way, it's not looking great.

[url= http://www.nutmeg.com/nutmegonomics/are-you-saving-enough-for-your-retirement/ ]c £40k[/url]

[url= https://www.oldmutualwealth.co.uk/Media-Centre/2015-press-releases/april-2015/people-banking-on-pension-pots-delivering-10-a-year-for-life/ ]£87k for the over 55s[/url]

I guess you have to take care who you ask and how you take an average of the pension pot size. A 30-year old with only 50k in their pot is not necessarily in trouble if they continue to fund it before they retire. A 50-year old with £50k has serious problems...

I've been saving for nearly 20 years and have c£6k a year to live off according to latest statements, which means I'll be in poverty despite trying to do the right thing. I'm only 43 though, so there'll be more in the pot by the time I need it. To be honest, as critical I am of BTL and those who think their house will be their pension (with all the heroic assumptions they're making) I can see why it looks like a rational decision when I look at the results of my own effort to make a provision for my own retirement.

I'm seriously thinking of emigrating on retirement to a country with cheaper standard of living and warmer climate where my pot will go further... so maybe as all the Arabs and Africans pour over to Europe for work, we'll all be pouring South for our retirements 🙂

Hopefully the robots will have taken over by then and be providing enough wealth for us to all retire in comfort 🙂

Hopefully the robots will have taken over by then and be providing enough wealth for us to all retire in comfort

They'll be shovelling us into IDS's pits en masse!

Or turning us into Soylent Green.

[img] [/img]

They'll be shovelling us into IDS's pits en masse!

Is Dignitas a plc? Buy shares in them and their competitors to fund your retirement 🙂

Given that George will now let you withdraw your pension fund to spend as you see fit, I'm just going to squirrel away enough to pay for a huge coke and hookers binge, thus inducing a massive coronary, and dying with eyes like a frog, and a smile so wide they have to bury me in a coffin specially extended to accommodate my head.

All while you sensible sods who planned for your retirement will be sat in whatever hellhole vision IDS has for you all, moaning, smelling of wee, and getting a kicking from a resentful Ukranian earning a quid an hour for wiping your arse 😛

Is Dignitas a plc?

Not sure we'll be able to afford that, plus the Tories don't approve tof an easy way out, they believe that the poor should suffer for their sins (being poor). It makes them feel all warm inside about being born / married into wealth.

Fundamentally, it all comes down to how much this man wants you to suffer...

[img] [/img]

Cheery article here on the subject

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/07/generation-y-pay-price-baby-boomer-pensions

footflaps - Member

they believe that the poor should suffer for their sins (being poor).

This is just their caring ways- if you don't suffer enough in this life how can you hope to progress in the next? When ATOS judge you in the bardo you'd best hope you're found worthy.

Course, if you're disabled you won't be able to get in, because the afterlife has steps.

But I'm on paleo?

It's OK you'll be dead in your mid thirties in that case

[url= http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/07/state-pension-shakeup-simpler-fairer-nasty-surprise?CMP=share_btn_fb ]http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/mar/07/state-pension-shakeup-simpler-fairer-nasty-surprise?CMP=share_btn_fb[/url]

and apparently I'm "at risk".
At risk of what exactly?

your home is as risk if you are not completely satisfied