Latest news with #Liz Kendall
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Revealed: The age group most affected by pension changes – and how much they could lose
The age bracket which stands to lose out the most from potential changes to the state pension age has been revealed after Labour's recently announced review into the current age of retirement. Millions of workers could lose more than £17,000 if an increase to the age at which the state pension can be claimed is moved forward, analysis by a wealth management firm has found. This is one of the more commonly speculated possibilities that could come from the government's state pension review, announced by work and pensions minister Liz Kendall last week. Governments are legally required to carry out a review of the state pension age every six years. The last one concluded in 2023, while this one is due to finish in 2029. It must give at least 10 years' notice for any state pension age change. Currently set at 66, and rising to 67 by 2028, the state pension age is the point at which a person is able to retire from work and receive the government-funded state pension. The figure is set to rise to 68 by 2046, but there is a strong possibility this is pushed forward by ministers in a bid to rein in massive spending on the state pension. Such a move was actually proposed by the previous pensions review, suggesting the rise to 68 be completed by 2039, but was never acted on by the government. New analysis by wealth management firm Rathbones has now found that if the deadline was pushed back even to 2039-41, workers aged 51 to 53 now would stand to lose out the most. This is because they would lose a full year of state pension payments that they would otherwise be receiving. Because of the triple-lock guarantee, which sees the state pension rise by at least 2.5 per cent every year, workers currently aged 51 would lose out on £17,774 from the change, Rathbones calculated. For those aged 52, it would be £16,918, and for those aged 51, it would be £17,340. Rebecca Williams, divisional lead of financial planning at Rathbones, said: 'With longevity increasing and population pressures mounting, future generations appear set to face a less generous state pension regime than that enjoyed by many of today's retirees. The situation appears particularly precarious for those in their early 50s who face real prospect of missing out. 'The state pension alone is not enough for a comfortable retirement. Individuals need a broad foundation built on workplace pensions, private savings, and the ongoing support of pension tax relief. Cracks are beginning to show in the system, and they must be addressed urgently if we are to maintain faith in the UK's pension framework and ensure people are equipped not just to survive, but to thrive in later life.' In her statement last week, Ms Kendall had noted that by the 2070s, the number of pensioners is expected to have increased by over 50 per cent, whereas the working age population will have only grown by over 10 per cent. She said that this makes 'it even more imperative to help future pensioners put into a savings pot they can rely on in the future'. Ms Kendall warned: 'My big worry is, so many young people have not even got a hope in hell of getting on the housing ladder, they're being absolutely killed by their rent, and if you are paying off your mortgage in retirement, or still renting in retirement, that is what is driving this sort of tsunami of pensioner poverty that is coming our way.' The minister told reporters: 'Put simply, unless we act, tomorrow's pensioners will be poorer than today's, because people who are saving aren't saving enough for their retirement. 'And crucially, because almost half of the working age population isn't saving anything for their retirement at all.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Anger as role at sharia court advertised on site for Government jobs
Outraged MPs demanded action last night as it emerged that a Government jobs site is advertising a role in a sharia court. They insisted that the British state should not be promoting the separate justice system based on Islamic law. And they urged the Department for Work and Pensions to remove the online posting for the £23,500-a-year administrative role. It comes after an investigation found Britain has become the western capital for sharia courts – with up to 85 operating here, offering religious rulings on marriage and divorce even though they are not legally recognised. Independent MP Rupert Lowe wrote in a letter to Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall: 'I am writing to express my absolute alarm and disgust that the Department for Work and Pensions "Find a Job" platform is currently advertising for a "Sharia Law Administrator". 'The requirements include a degree in sharia law and experience in sharia courts in Muslim countries. 'The DWP is promoting and facilitating the embedding of a parallel legal system in the United Kingdom. 'Sharia law has no place operating as a recognised legal framework within our country. It is fundamentally incompatible with British law, and our very way of life.' Mr Lowe demanded to know who approved the job posting and urged the department to immediately remove it. Reform's Zia Yusuf also wrote on social media: 'There is only one legal system in the UK. Any attempt to upend or replace it should be illegal.' While party leader Nigel Farage claimed: 'Our country and its values are being destroyed.' And Tory MP Peter Bedford said: 'I would be aghast if a politician signed off allowing recruitment for this type of role. 'I suspect, once again, this is the out-of-control civil service creating and implementing policy contrary to democratic authority. This must stop.' The advert posted on the DWP's Find A Job website on Thursday was for a 'Sharia Law Administrator' at Manchester Community Centre based in Didsbury. It requested an individual to 'provide all admin and secretarial work for Manchester Sharia Council' including to 'plan, manage, organise and oversee all MSC social and sharia services and activities on a day to day basis'. Candidates needed a degree in sharia law along with 'previous working experience in sharia law-related fields and/or sharia courts in Muslim countries'. 'Boundary-setting' was an essential skill, with the ad stating: 'The nature of the work means it is easy to get emotionally involved in certain cases. 'Setting boundaries ensures professional lines are not crossed...' A DWP spokesman said: 'This is a position being advertised on the Find A Job portal by an independent registered charity and is not within DWP. 'Find A Job is a free platform to help jobseekers find vacancies with employers from various sectors.'
Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Times
How DIY investing helped me go from council flat to coastal cottage
When a cabinet minister (in this case Liz Kendall) predicts that 'tomorrow's pensioners will be poorer than today's', it is time to paddle away from what she called the 'tsunami of pensioner poverty' and become a do-it-yourself investor. Relying on the kindness of strangers is a recipe for disappointment, whether they are paternalistic employers or kindly politicians recycling other people's money. So this DIY investor is jolly glad that I began buying shares more than 30 years ago, when, in the 1980s, millions of ordinary people enjoyed making money out of the stock market. Privatisations were priced to go — do you remember, Sid? — and the flotation of financial institutions such as Abbey National and TSB delivered windfall profits that helped to turn small savers into serious shareholders. Since then, shrinking returns from many British businesses and burdensome taxes on investors have crushed dreams of a share-owning democracy. But the SOS message from the work and pensions secretary last week may serve as a wake-up call for millions who are sleepwalking toward a miserable old age. • Will you pay the price for the chancellor's pension shake-up? Let me explain how and why I began investing. Better still, for anyone lucky enough to be in their twenties, as I was when I started on Fleet Street in 1986, I can flag up some pitfalls of the stock market that I learnt the hard way. The first thing this cub financial reporter from Kilburn in northwest London noticed was that the Square Mile is full of ordinary folk receiving extraordinary remuneration. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that: give me overpaid over underpaid any day. But every penny of those City slickers' pay and bonuses has to come out of the pockets of the punters or, more formally, policyholders with life assurance-linked contracts and other old-fashioned investment funds. That's why I decided to start buying shares for myself, gaining a stake in businesses that I liked and shunning rackets that I loathe, such as tobacco. Professionals love to make their work seem complex because it helps to reduce competition and protect high pay. But anyone can see and hear where consumers are spending their money and which companies or countries might be on the way up. • Here's how to get your portfolio ready for battle That's how I stumbled on what turned into my very first ten-bagger — a share whose price went up ten times after I invested. A couple of business trips to the Far East prompted the idea of gaining a stake in Asia's ruthless work ethic, memorably summed up by the line: 'He who does not work shall not eat.' Knowing nothing about the individual businesses, I bought shares in London-listed investment trusts that were focused on China and India. Like other forms of pooled funds — such as unit trusts and exchange traded funds (ETFs) — these enable everyone to diminish the risk inherent in stock markets by diversification, which spreads our money over different companies. Long story short, shares in what was then called Fleming Indian and is now JP Morgan Indian, in which I invested a low four-figure sum at 63p in June 1996 cost £10.70 at close of trade on Friday. Newish fund managers say they intend to begin paying dividend income equal to at least 4 per cent of net asset value (NAV) later this year, which is good news after it has performed relatively poorly in recent years. Less happily, I was an enthusiastic participant in the demutualisation mania of the 1990s, when several building societies floated on the stock market. Not one of those newly formed banks remains an independent institution now and none of the shares issued by Alliance & Leicester, Bradford & Bingley, Halifax or Northern Rock is worth anything today. No wonder they say windfalls don't keep. More positively, that painful experience taught me that there is nothing theoretical about the warning that share prices can fall to zero. It also demonstrated the danger that if you follow the herd, you might end up at the abattoir. As a general rule, if everyone is investing in something, public confidence and share prices are likely to be near their peak, so there probably isn't much money left to be made. That's one reason I intend to continue avoiding cryptocurrencies, the investment craze of today. Another reason is that I prefer to own shares in businesses providing those goods and services where I can see customers paying real money, funding rising capital values and dividend income for investors. For example, watching my wife and her girlfriends enjoying the early days of the gin and tonic trend led me to the life-changing investment that is Fever-Tree Drinks. I paid £2.11 in March 2015 for shares I sold for £36.52 in October 2018, as reported here at those times, to help to buy the coastal cottage on the Isle of Wight where I am sitting now. But the rump of Fever-Tree shares I still own have gone somewhat flat since then. This reminds investors that paper profits are all very well but we haven't really made a penny until we sell. Of course, this DIY investor could have stuck it all in a tracker fund after Richard Branson — as he was then — paid me to write about investing in funds that follow stock market indices 30 years ago. But I don't think aiming to be average would have taken this poor boy from a council flat when Kilburn was still a slum, to where I am today. Times change but the truth about pension planning and stock market investment remains much the same. Buying when confidence and prices are low is more likely to lead to wealth creation than waiting for perfection, and the sooner we start the better. But before you invest anything, consider carefully how you will feel when markets fall. That should reduce the risk of doing something silly, like selling after prices plunge. Investing little and often is safer than a lump sum because regular savings diminish the danger of bad timing or buying heavily before a fall. AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor — Britain's biggest online platforms — all accept as little as £25 per month, without any commitment to continue. • Full disclosure: Ian Cowie's shareholdings Tax wrappers, such as Isas and pensions, allow us to place some of our savings beyond the grasp of HM Revenue & Customs. Make the most of both while you can because any imminent tax raids are unlikely to be retrospective. Pension perks or fiscal advantages have certainly become much less generous during the decades I have been benefiting from them. Which reminds me that, long ago at another newspaper, a senior colleague used to smirk about how boring he thought pensions were. To which I replied that they were not nearly as boring as poverty in old age was likely to be. Young investors have one big advantage over wrinkly rivals — time. None of us can opt out of growing older, short of doing something drastic, and the state safety net seems to be sagging lower as more folk fall into it. Sad to say, it might be even worse tomorrow.
Telegraph
24-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
RMT union threatens strikes if Labour raises state pension age
A rail union boss has threatened to launch national strikes if Labour raises the state pension age. Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), warned the Government he would 'lead our movement onto the streets and will not hesitate to protest nationally and take coordinated direct action'. His threat came after Labour opened the door for the statutory retirement age to be raised by announcing a new pensions review on Monday. The move, unveiled by Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, raises the prospect that six million Britons could be forced to delay their retirements. On Thursday, Mr Dempsey warned: 'If this Government makes any move to drastically increase the retirement age, we intend to lead our movement onto the streets and will not hesitate to protest nationally and take coordinated direct action. 'The UK state pension is already one of the worst in the entire developed world which is a direct result of decades of governments transferring both our national and personal wealth to the super rich. 'Any decision to squeeze more out of working people by forcing us to work even longer would be a national disgrace.' Instead of raising the state pension age, Mr Dempsey said the Government should impose a wealth tax on assets of over £2 million. Although the RMT is not formally affiliated to Labour, the union commands a largely public sector membership numbering around 83,000 people. Under current plans, the state pension age is on course to rise to 67 by 2028 and to 68 by 2046. However, raising the retirement age sooner than planned is politically controversial, with previous plans to do so abandoned by Jeremy Hunt, the former Chancellor, amid concerns he would struggle to justify the change. The RMT strike threat comes after Nigel Farage also backed Labour's suggestions that the state pension age must rise. The Reform UK leader said on Tuesday: 'I don't think we can really afford to [wait to the 2040s], to be frank. If there is a sudden economic miracle, then it might change that. But it does not look to be happening any time soon.' Ms Kendall said this week she was 'under no illusions' about the scale of the challenges facing both workers and the public purse as the country ages. 'Many workers are more concerned about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads than saving for a retirement that seems a long way away, and many businesses face huge challenges in keeping profitable and flexible in an increasingly uncertain world,' she said.
The Independent
24-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Two million pensioners in the UK are currently in poverty
Work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has warned of a potential 'tsunami of pensioner poverty' without major reform and indicated a possible increase in the state retirement age. The Commons Work and Pensions Committee has urged the government to establish a national strategy to combat pensioner poverty, including setting a minimum income for a dignified retirement. Age UK reports that two million pensioners are currently in poverty, a figure expected to rise, with the committee's report noting a significant increase in pensioner poverty since 2010. MPs are calling for improved take-up of pension credits, as an estimated 700,000 eligible households are missing out on up to £4,000 annually and other vital benefits. The report highlights long-term concerns such as people renting into later life and the strain poverty places on health and social care systems, while the government maintains support for pensioners is a priority.
