Displaying items by tag: pensions

The Financial Conduct Authority says it will ban most contingent charging on DB pension transfers as part of a raft of measures designed to tackle ‘weaknesses’ in the DB transfer market.

A new report on retirement income has revealed that 15% of people are still working past 65 with many concerned they have enough income to retire completely.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme received 4,100 extra SIPP and pensions claims 2019/20 than it expected, resulting in increased cost of £3.9m.

Nearly half (47%) of 55 to 64-year-olds are unaware that deferring the State Pension can boost their retirement income significantly when they start to claim their pension benefits.

Many pension savers are missing this valuable ‘Financial Planning’ option when they retire, according to research from retirement specialist Just Group.

Deferring the State Pension payment can mean significantly higher state pensions with every nine weeks of deferral boosting income by 1% - equivalent to 5.8% more income for every 52 weeks of deferral.

However, just over one in 10 (12%) of those aged 65+ had deferred their State Pension with the figure higher among women (16%) than men (9%) and also higher among the semi-retired (22%) than fully retired (11%).

Just says with Coronavirus hitting financial plans many more could consider State Pension deferral to boost retirement income.

Stephen Lowe, Just communications director, said: “Deferring State Pension is an important option for the rising number of over-65s in good health and who plan to carry on working.

“It needs to be factored into people’s Financial Planning in the run-up to retirement so it is worrying that such a high number of people aged 55-64 don’t know that there is a degree of flexibility around when and how they take their State Pension.”

According to research by Just the appetite for State Pension deferral has waned in recent years with about 1m people currently receiving extra money as a result of deferral, about 25% fewer than the peak in 2004, according to Department of Work and Pensions figures.

With the full New State Pension rising to £175.20 a week from April, deferring for one year would result in

£10.12 extra a week – more than £526 a year.

Those who have started to receive the State Pension can defer payment once during retirement.

Most people tend to defer the State Pension for between one and two years but more than half defer for longer.

Among those who chose not to defer, 31% said it was because they wanted to stop working as soon as they could. A quarter (25%) said they would have had to defer for too long to make the weekly increase worthwhile.

How long after you were eligible did you defer starting to receive your State Pension?
Up to a year -15%
1-2 years - 31%
2-3 years - 26%
3-5 years - 19%
5-10 years - 8%

Source: Just Group

New research suggests that 1 in 10 over-55s (11%) have either accessed their pension early or plan to do so due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Complaints about regulated firms topped 6m in the second half of 2019, according to data published by the FCA today.

The FCA has ruled out - at least for the time being - a complete ban on short selling as it works closely with international regulators to ensure that financial markets remain “open and orderly.”

Former Pensions Minister Steve Webb has urged the Treasury to scrap or relax rules which will limit people’s ability to ‘rebuild’ their pensions when the Coronavirus crisis ends.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reprieved Entrepreneur’s Relief from a predicted chop but cut it from £10m to £1m.

Defined benefit pension transfer values rose in February with Coronavirus fears spurring the rise, according to the XPS Transfer Watch Index, a monthly study of transfer values.