Government Views

Official inflation figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the Consumer Price Index, the government's preferred measure of inflation, was 2.9 per cent in December.The figure was up from the 1.9 per cent reported in the previous month.According to the ONS, the one per cent increase ... read more

Pensions guru Dr Ros Altmann has urged the government to review the age at which people need to retire. A leading industry commentator has said that proposals to review the default retirement age are "long overdue".Dr Ros Altmann, an independent pensions adviser, said that current policy "works against" giving people ... read more

Government announcements regarding the reform of workplace pensions do not go "far enough" in some areas, according to one industry body.Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), said that further changes will need to be made in order to "maintain existing good-quality provision".The comments follow ... read more

A new report, published by the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) earlier today (December 17th), has outlined employer attitudes towards collective defined contribution (CDC) pension schemes. If enabled in the UK, the schemes would see contributions paid into a collective fund which would allow investment risk shared between different ... read more

Possible future changes to the state pension age have been investigated by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI).The researchers looked into recent Conservative claims that they would bring forward the present government's plans to raise the age, should they win the next general election.Current government proposals suggest that the state pension ... read more

The 2.5 per cent increase to the state pension announced in last week's Pre-Budget Report will not apply to all components of the payment.Speaking to the BBC, pensions minister Angela Eagle confirmed that parts of the pension, including the State Earnings Related Pension (Serps), would be frozen from April 2010.Instead, ... read more

The Pre-Budget Report (PBR) presented by Alistair Darling yesterday (December 9th) contains several potential "dangers" for pensions, an independent expert has said.Dr Ros Altmann, a former government pensions adviser, claimed that the apparent cap on public sector pension costs contained in the report are "misleading" and that the expenses will ... read more

Quantitative easing has been maintained at £200 billion, the Bank of England (BoE) announced today (December 10th).Policymakers at the bank also said that they would maintain interest rates at their record low of 0.5 per cent.The radical rate-cutting measures imposed by the BoE over late 2008 and early 2009 - ... read more

Carers have been given extra support from the government, with those taking part in Jobcentre Plus employment training gaining access to funding.The reforms have been targeted at those who have had to turn down a job offer due to their existing responsibilities.Recent figures suggest that one in five carers have ... read more

The chancellor of the exchequer should announce a "radical shake up" of the present annuities system in his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) on December 9th, a charity has said.Age Concern and Help the Aged said that many people with smaller pension pots were facing unacceptably high tax costs when converting their ... read more