Biscuitman

There are some good cartoons to be found on

http://www.scottishlife.co.uk/scotli...ly06Page10.asp

that demonstrate the growing pensions mess.

In the meantime our governement seem to be pinning their hopes on a compulsory pension scheme.

They have already tried a voluntary scheme - the ill-fated Stakeholder Pension, (well its name was 'groovy' at the time), over 400,000 schemes have been set up, (compulsory for employers to have one in place and although tens of 1,000s of companys didnt set one up I dont recall any of them being fined the "10,000 that was threatened).

Of those 400,000 schemes more than 75% don't have a single member.

So we're going down the compulsory membership route. Its to be called the Britsaver, (the EU wont like that), as it is roughly modelled on the New Zealand Kiwisaver.

When you start work you will be automatically enrolled in the scheme and have to opt out if you don't want to contribute.

The theory being that most people are so idle that they will never get round to opting out. Perhaps the government should pay a bit more attention to the Kiwisaver that they are praising so loudly. 75% of New Zealanders opted out!!

Expect the figures to be much higher in the UK. New Zealand doesnt have the generous means tested benefits that we do - their pension is set at 33% of National Average Earnings and is worth £170 a week. Only about 5% of those retiring qualify for a means tested top up.

In the UK the basic pension is £84 a week and for those able to cope with the paperwrok, means testing tops this up by about £40 or so. By 2050 90% of those on pensions will qualify for the Pension Credit.

Thus being a member of the Britsaver will cost you money out of your pocket now and when you finally received an enhanced pension you will receive a lower Pension Credit top up - or perhaps nothing.

Heads or tails you loose.


When the government imposed the Stakeholder regime on the industry they capped charges at 1%. That meant that the pensions providers had no incentive to market them as there was no profit at all to be made.

Commissions to financial advisers were drastically reduced to the extent that relying on commission alone we lose money, (whilst taking full responsibility for the sale should anything go wrong in the future - such as the government changing the rules retrospectively), in advising on a pension sale.

The Treasury's response was that we should charge the client a fee instead. So rather than all customers receive free advice whether they buy a product or not all customers have to pay up front regardless of whether they take our advice. (NB: Commission is Vat free whereas Fees carry VAT - this would earn Gordon Brown about £750 million a year if all advisers worked on a fee basis).

With no incentive for providers and advisers to be involved in the pensions market very few pensions are sold today and the industry that encouraged people to invest £1,200 billion in pension savings - the most successful in the world - three times more than the rest of the EU combined - has virtually closed down except for sales to 'high net worth' individuals who want to stash big lumps away.

The theft of £8 billion a year by Gordon Brown from our pension plans and the horrendous administration changes have lead to a mass exodus from final salary schemes to the extent that the only ones still open and offering extremely genourous benefits are the MPs own scheme and the public service schemes.

You couldn't have made a better job of destroying UK pensions if you had tried.

Perhaps it's just the sceptic in me that thinks that the plan is to create as big a mess in our pensions as the rest of the EU is in so that the solution to the problem becomes an EU one.

If you have read my papers or heard me speak on pensions you will know that this is a recurrent thread.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.

PS: I see the neurosurgeons tomorrow - whether this is to progress my case or just a box ticking exercise, it's six months to the day since I last saw them, to meet government targets I don't know.

But regardless of their agenda I wont be leaving without knowing what they are planning and when they are going to do it.

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

Biscuitman

Quite an active group on pensions can be found at:-

http://www.npcuk.org/

The National Pensions Convention and a few other groups ought to be a natural source of members because the other parties can't/won't give them what they/we want.

__________________
IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!