A new auto-enrolment compatible pension scheme has been launched by Helm Godfrey in partnership with Scottish Widows to meet the specific needs of people within the film industry, it has been revealed today

The government’s proposed reforms to the four largest public service pension schemes will reduce the average value of the pension benefit for members of these schemes by more than a third, and also reduce the long-term government expenditure on unfunded public service schemes by around a quarter according to the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI).

Following Lord Hutton’s review of the public service pension schemes, the Coalition government’s proposed reforms include linking the pension benefits for public service workers to average salary, linking the Normal Pension Age (NPA) to the State Pension Age (SPA) for the four largest schemes: NHS, Teachers, Local Government and the Civil Service and increasing average contributions to be made by scheme members. Uniformed services will also be affected by these reforms

Bulk annuity transactions hit £876m in the first quarter of 2013, according to consultant Barnett Waddingham, up from £492m in the same period last year

Requirements for daily dealing must be relaxed to improve DC pension scheme performance, The Defined Contribution Investment Forum has claimed

The NAPF has given a qualified welcome to yesterday’s upgrade of the economic outlook and lowering of inflation expectation by the Bank of England governor Mervyn King

The Minister for Pensions Steve Webb’s promise to keep transfer fees under pot follows member reforms “trivially cheap” has been called into question by B&CE

The establishment of a common investment vehicle for pensions investment operated on behalf of London Boroughs is “clearly feasible” and with a minimum level of buy-in is “financially attractive” according to a report from the London’s Councils Leaders’ Committee Pensions Working Group

The Scottish government could not “unilaterally do what it wanted” with accrued pension rights in the event of separation, experts have told MPs at a meeting of the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee

The independent campaigning organisation, Liberty, has urged people to email their MPs to support the fight for equal pension treatment for all civil partners and spouses, regardless of their sexual orientation

More action is needed to tackle pension liberation fraud, according to the Council of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees (APPT)

Legal & General has unveiled plans to extend its independent “trustee style” governance used in the structure of its WorkSave Mastertrust to contract based workplace pensions and will initially focus on default funds

The UK is close to achieving consensus around pensions but weaknesses in the system must be addressed, according to a new pamphlet published by the Trade Unions Congress (TUC)

A three day hearing has begun at the Supreme Court today to determine where the claims of UK defined benefit pension schemes lie in relation to a firm’s insolvency

Retirees in the UK owe £105 billion, according to research by annuity specialist MGM Advantage. It found that four million retirees, more than a third of all pensioners, have personal debts, with an average of £6,952, while one in eight (13 per cent) are still paying off mortgages. Outstanding mortgage debt averaged £47,458, with ten per cent of those owing more than £100,000

Two-thirds (65%) of UK adults lack the knowledge, time or desire to plan for their finances in retirement, according to The Equity Release Council

UK defined benefit scheme deficits increased £20bn last month, to hit £256.6bn the end of April, according to the Pension Protection Fund’s 7800 index

Emerging market equities and debt will be among the key asset classes seeing growth in 2013, according to a survey of fund managers

Deficits in the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) have risen to £5.7bn gross of tax at the end of March, and £5.9bn across all the company’s schemes according to BT’s fourth quarter and full year-results

Labour has stated that the current UK pension regulatory system is “not fit for purpose” and the implementation of a single pensions regulator is one of the options that it is exploring in its policy review to improve the current system

The end of contracting out poses major challenges for employers for which they are ill-prepared, technical pensions specialists Aries Pension & Insurance Services warned today. The Pensions Bill published before the weekend confirmed the government’s intention to bring forward the introduction of the single tier state pension to 2016

The market value of listed infrastructure funds on the London Stock Exchange has risen from £1.4bn to £4.9bn since the end of 2008 due to increasing numbers of funds gaining listing shares and existing funds raising fresh capital. The trend is likely to continue as the government highlights new infrastructure projects to drive economic recovery

Defined benefit scheme deficits are at their worst for six years, according to the latest figures from Mercer’s Pensions Risk Survey

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has today been given the power to ban incentivised transfer exercises. Section 30 in today’s Pensions Bill stated ‘The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision prohibiting a person from offering an incentive to another person with the intention of inducing a member of a salary related occupational pension scheme, to exercise a right to require a pensions transfer, or agree to a pensions transfer’

The government has published its Pensions Bill. Incorporating changes prompted by last month’s Work and Pensions Committee report on the draft bill (with its response also published today), the bill sets out the government’s plans for reform of the state pension, introducing the single-tier state pension (STP) and increases in the state pension age

The trustees of the Kodak Pension Plan have written a letter to its 15,000 members announcing details of a new pension scheme they plan to establish as a result of the settlement agreement with the Eastman Kodak Company

The government has today announced its intention to ban the consultancy charging system for automatic enrolment schemes and will also set out proposals for the introduction of a cap on pension charges in general

The City of London Police have today begun a major crackdown on pension liberation fraudsters by dismantling a suspected organised crime gang believed to be cold calling and text messaging pension holders across the UK with illegal offers that could ultimately destroy pension plans

Trustees will be relieved by a Supreme Court decision making it tougher for creditors to force companies into balance sheet insolvency, according to lawyers

HIG Europe, a private equity firm, behind the acquisition of bed manufacturer, Silentnight, in 2011, could be hit with a contribution notice issued by the Pensions Regulator reports have shown

Sponsors face increasing pension contributions by half or paying in for an extra four years to meet worsening deficits, according to new analysis by Hymans Robertson

The difficulties pension scheme trustees can face when attempting to recover past overpayments of pensions from members has again been highlighted, after a member of the trust based occupational pension scheme, Pearl Group Staff Pension Scheme, was overpaid a total amount of around £3,000

The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA), one of the UK’s largest local government pension schemes is almost fully funded, it announced today. An initial assessment carried out by actuaries Barnett Waddingham put the funding level of the £4.7bn scheme at 95 per cent, up from a weighted average between active members’ and pensioners’ subsections of 81 per cent at the last valuation, three years ago

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its annual funding statement for 2013, placing greater emphasis on the flexibilities open to pension schemes grappling with low gilt yields from the weak economy and quantitative easing (QE)

A total of 66 per cent of defined contribution (DC) savers would be likely to sign up to a pension scheme, whereby the employer sets a target retirement income and manages it for them according to latest research by Hymans Robertson

The Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) has announced that it is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) for investment management services from existing managers, teams or individuals

Increased awareness of the tax benefits of pension saving are a cause for optimism, according to Standard Life. A YouGov poll for the insurer found the number of adults aware of pensions’ tax efficiency remained a minority, but at 39 per cent was 10 per cent up from 2012

Corporate pension deficits in the UK stand at just under £700bn, according to Xafinity. Its corporate benefits pensions tracker shows deficits increased by £84bn in the last month to reach £695bn at the end of April

Minister for Pensions Steve Webb has defended the government’s decision to remove the system whereby people living overseas can claim a state pension on the employment record and National Insurance (NI) contributions of their spouse

The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) has appointed a new director. The pensions research and education body announced that Chris Curry will replace current director Niki Cleal, who steps down in June

Pensions schemes operating across Scotland and England would not face complying with EU rules on cross border pensions funding in the event of independence, first minister Alex Salmond has said

UK DC funds need better approaches to lifestyling to meet members’ needs, according to the Pension Investment Academy (PIA)

Health minister Dan Poulter has stated the government is fully aware of the need to address issues surrounding funding for locum GP employer pension contributions.

Hundreds of miners’ are fearing for their pensions, as they are currently in limbo over whether UK Coal will commence insolvency proceedings after the closure of Daw Mill Colliery, one of the three mines it operated earlier this year

Increases in income drawdown might be pushing pensioners into higher tax brackets, SIPP specialist Hornbuckle Mitchell warned today

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) does not have the resources to move from a more trigger based system to a more holistic approach with regards to DB funding according to LCP senior partner and ACA honorary secretary of the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) Bob Scott

Home Retail Group, which runs Argos and Homebase stores, has reported a £31m boost – a third of its total annual net profit – from closing its defined benefit scheme. The windfall follows the closure of its scheme to future accrual from January 31, following a triennial valuation showing a £158m deficit at the end of last March

The aggregate funding levels for UK pensions has remained unchanged in the last year despite liabilities reaching record highs, according to JLT Pensions Capital Strategies

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has outlined the general workings of its three favoured DB-lite defined ambition models to encourage risk sharing within the industry

A new TPR statutory objective supporting scheme funding that is compatible with sustainable growth for the sponsoring employer and fully consistent with 2004 funding legislation, is not just “window dressing” and should have a “noticeable and measureable difference” in how the regulator acts, according to National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) chairman Mark Hyde Harrison

Nest now has more than 100,000 participating members, it announced today. At an event for employers and advisers the auto-enrolment scheme operator welcomed 26 new employers, taking the number of large employers with the scheme to more than 300

Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn and Costa Coffee, has seen its pension deficits in its defined benefit scheme reduce by £57m according to its latest financial results as at 28 February 2013

Almost a third of UK adults, bury their heads in the sand rather than engaging with pensions planning due to a lack of understanding, according to a YouGov poll. Twice as many (60 per cent) admit to being confused by pensions

Eastman Kodak Company has announced a settlement agreement with the UK Kodak Pension Plan (KPP) that will see its Personalised Imaging and Document Imaging businesses transferred to UK retirees in a deal worth around $2.8bn (£1.8bn)

Nest has published its UK voting policy today as it hails “a quiet shareholder revolution” unleashed by auto-enrolment. Board diversity, executive pay and social and environmental issues are among the factors it will consider

Equities will deliver the best performance over 2013 and investment grade credit the worst, according to Aon Hewitt’s fund manager survey

NOW: Pensions has become the first master-trust to receive the PQM READY standard due to its low charges and member communication standards

Allocations to private infrastructure funds will grow dramatically over the next decade, according to a new report by Altius Associates Ltd. The fund manager expects allocations by institutional investors to increase by five fold

Charities have been urged to implement salary sacrifice plans in order to save money when installing pension schemes and to also boost staff benefits

The Association of Consulting Actuaries has called on the government to act within the year following its announcement yesterday, which said it would continue to review Limited Price Indexation (LPI) of pensions for future accrual

The Scottish government must start considering the impact of independence on pensions before results of the referendum to be held in September next year, ICAS has said

Schroders has announced two newly created senior appointments to support the continuing growth of its LDI team based in London. Daniel Morris joins as LDI Solutions Manager and his role will be to work closely with new and existing clients and their advisers to understand their requirements and translate these into effective portfolios and strategies

Deficits for local government pension schemes (LPGS) have more than doubled since the turn of the decade, according to analysis from actuaries at KPMG. The consultant estimates the aggregate LGPS deficit has soared by up to £50 billion from £38bn to well over £80bn. Returns of 20 per cent have been outstripped by an increase in the value of the liabilities of more than 40 per cent as a result of an all time high in gilt prices, it says

Pensions minister Steve Webb has announced changes to disclosure rules for company pensions as part of the government’s Red Tape Challenge programme. It claims the changes will save businesses £10m a year

A third of trustees believe that their employer could contribute more to their defined benefit pension schemes, up from around a quarter last year according to Baker Tilly

More legislation requiring HMRC to be more restrictive on pensions schemes allowed to have registered status will help the industry’s battle against pensions liberation, B&CE has stated. The financial benefits provider also stated that the vetting process should be more rigorous

The government has been urged to establish a single regulator responsible for regulating all workplace pensions in order to ensure adequate and consistent protection for members, a report by the Work and Pensions Committee has shown

The UK has narrowly avoided a triple-dip recession after its output expanded by 0.3 per cent in the three months to March. A growth level of just 0.1 per cent had been expected

Local government pension schemes could fund more than 20,000 new homes, almost a fifth of the number built in England and Wales last year, according to property fund manager Hearthstone Investments. Investing 2.5 per cent of their capital in property the schemes could ease the housing crisis, without any additional funding, it claims

Consultants have broadly welcomed new rules from the UK Takeover Panel on the disclosures bidders must make concerning pension schemes sponsored by target companies, but suggest a limited impact

Tesco has announced that it is to launch a pension annuity comparison site, and has submitted a request to the regulator to obtain permission for this service

The value of assets held in UK funded pensions was £2,040.7bn in 2011, the Office of National Statistics showed today in its Pension Trends report

The Minister for Pensions Steve Webb has announced that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will create an automatic transfer system for small pots of less than £10,000, allowing workers to take their pensions with them when changing employer, thus encouraging the consolidation of a “big fat pot”

Four in 10 employers believe that their defined benefit scheme funding regime lacks the flexibility to suit the current economic climate, and greater dialogue between sponsors and trustees has been urged as a result of this

Over half of people without a private pension (53%) would start a pension if they had a better understanding of how they work, a survey by Capita Employee Benefits has found

Current de-risking strategies are in danger of introducing significant financial risk for pension schemes, a new report by investment adviser Cambridge Associates claims. Low interest rates mean the 'glide path' that sees schemes reallocate to fixed income assets as funding levels improve will leave many dependent on much higher sponsor contributions in future

The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) has announced that it has appointed Paul Couchman as its new president

Growth in median retirement incomes calls for significant changes to pensions, tax, welfare and social policy, according to a new report published by left-leaning think tank the Fabian Society today

UK chancellor George Osborne has mounted a legal challenge at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the decision to allow 11 EU member states to impose a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) or ‘Tobin tax’ arguing that it could affect investors and pension savers in the UK

The managing director of Montpelier Pension Administration Services Limited (MPAS) has been banned and censured from performing any significant influence function at any regulated firm as a result of a lack of understanding of the SIPP operator’s regulated activities and corresponding regulatory responsibilities whilst conducting a rapid expansion of the business

Flows into BlackRock’s Market Advantage fund have surged 42 per cent in the last quarter as institutions embrace risk factor investing, according to the fund manager

Over half of people in the UK with a private pension are failing to conduct regular check-ups on their pension pot as either they have never reviewed their plan (38%) or have not done so in the last three years (14%) according to Duncan Lawrie Private Bank

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has urged members to write to MPs opposing proposals for their pension’s normal retirement age. Changes in the Public Sector Pensions Bill would mean mass dismissals, the union claims

BBS Consultants & Actuaries, the Bristol based independent pension consultancy, has published a new guide designed to highlight the key practical steps employers need to take to prepare for, implement and manage auto-enrolment

Sainsbury’s has launched a two month consultation with its staff about proposed changes to its defined benefit pension scheme

Over 300,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically-enrolled into an automatic-enrolment pension scheme for the period between July 2012 and March 2013 according to latest information published by the Pensions Regulator (TPR)

The £4.5bn London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA), one of the UK’s largest local government pension schemes covering 200 employers, has appointed a new deputy chairman and new additions to its board

Dairy Crest, a UK-owned dairy foods company has announced that it is to plug its pensions gap by pledging £60m worth of its maturing cheese to pension fund trustees

This year will see the start of a revival in UK property, Aviva Investors said today, in a note arguing that secondary assets offered “compelling value”.

Tesco has experienced a rise of more than £500m in its defined benefit pension scheme deficits, according to its latest financial results.

Almost two thirds of institutional investors say they will increase allocations to infrastructure in the coming year, according to a new survey

Increasing the number of over fifties in the workforce is essential if Britain is to avoid “running out of workers”, according to the government

Just 6 per cent of HR, payroll and financial professionals expect their employer to take on additional staff to meet their auto-enrolment responsibilities despite an increased administrative burden being attached to the government savings initiative, a survey conducted by Ceridian has revealed

The UK’s National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has given its support to European Commission proposals to increase social and environmental reporting by large companies

Clarity Leads, a lead generation company has today been banned from texting unsolicited messages to consumers offering pensions liberation

Less than half of defined contribution scheme members are confident their pension will provide an adequate retirement income, according to a survey published by consultants Hymans Robertson

Buy-ins and buy-outs remain attractive, despite record low bond yields pushing up prices, Towers Watson said today

NILGOSC, the body responsible for the administration of the Local Government Pension Scheme for Northern Ireland, has today defended its decision to invest in weapon manufacturers

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has remained at 2.8 per cent in March according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, therefore resulting in pensioners’ budgets remaining “incredibly strained”

“The ‘cult of the equity' is history,” consultant Aon Hewitt said today as it released the UK findings of its Global Pensions Risk Survey 2013

A sharp increase in the number of late payments into company pension schemes by employers could lead to an impending wave of restructuring and insolvencies, international law firm Pinsent Masons has warned

Ignis Asset Management has announced the appointment of Mira Bhogaita to its UK equity team as a portfolio manager. She has over eight years’ investment experience, including most recently as a portfolio manager at LV= Asset Management (LVAM). She managed the UK equity portolfio of the LV= Group Pension Scheme from August 2009 to August 2011. She began her career at Deutsche Asset Management as a UK equity analyst in 2003. In 2005, she then took up a role as a global analyst at Newton Investment Management before joining Credit Suisse Asset Management

SEI has announced that it has been appointed as fiduciary manager to the defined benefit schemes of Metroline, a provider of bus services in London. It will act as fiduciary manager for the Metroline London Northern Pension Scheme and the Metroline Pension Scheme

The European Commission should rethink its Solvency II plans in lights of the recent results published by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) as they “lack credibility” according to Punter Southall head of research Jane Beverley

A total of 44 per cent of pension savers are still unaware that they have tax relief entitlements on their workplace pension savings according to research from B&CE

Publisher Johnston Press has become the first to join Zurich’s newly launched master trust scheme, the insurer announced today

Investor interest is the biggest barrier to greater adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the investment process by asset managers, according to a new survey

WH Smith has today announced that it is to pump £13m a year over the next seven years into its defined benefit pension scheme, the WH Smith Pension Trust, to stem increasing pension deficits within the scheme

Almost one in four UK adults (23 per cent) has lost track of a pension scheme, according to a poll by charity Age UK

The Department for Communities and Local Government has launched a consultation on the issue of whether councillors and other directly elected local office holders should continue to have access to the tax-payer funded Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) 2014

Just Retirement’s total annuity sales have exceeded £800m for the first time according to its latest results

Soaring liabilities mean government plans for a sympathetic approach to
pension scheme funding face “a baptism of fire”, according to Towers Watson

New rules aimed at reducing risk in the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market are likely to alter bond funds investment strategies, ratings agency Moody’s has predicted

The Minister for Pensions Steve Webb has urged the European Commission (EC) to abandon its “reckless” Solvency II plans for defined benefit pension schemes, following yesterday’s preliminary results published by the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)

A total of 30 per cent of investment advisers do not believe that active fund managers can consistently outperform indices over five years, research by Castle Trust has shown

Average annuity rates have increased by 3 per cent in Q1 2013, the first rise in two years according to the MGM Advantage Annuity Index

The aggregate deficit of the 6,316 schemes in the PPF 7800 index has increased over the month to £236.6bn at the end of March from £201.5bn at the end of February as lower nominal and index-linked gilt yields continue to have significant effects on scheme performance

Pension schemes who claim they have been the victims of negligent advice from Scottish Widows, have been warned that they only have until May this year to launch legal action worth around £1bn against the insurer.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published an interim response to the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) equalisation consultation and has requested help from the pensions industry for how the GMP conversion process might be used to equalise scheme benefits

The growing enthusiasm from pension funds towards ground rent investments has been questioned by Cardano

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has announced that it has appointed three new members to its Determinations Panel

Young workers born in the 1980s, previously nicknamed the ostrich generation for their lack of interest in saving, are increasingly ‘taking their heads out of the sand’ when it comes to pension saving

Chivas Brothers, the Scotch Whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, has injected £60.5m into its defined benefit scheme, the Chivas Brothers Pension Scheme, in order to combat increasing pension deficits

The accounting deficits of FTSE350 defined benefit (DB) schemes increased over the month of March to £79bn (equivalent to a funding ratio of 87% at 31 March 2013), despite continued growth in equity markets during March, Mercer’s latest Pensions Risk Survey data shows

The Spirit of Enniskillen Trust, a youth-led charity working across Northern Ireland, has entered administration because of increasing defined benefit (DB) liabilities

Automatic enrolment (AE) could result in reduced or no pay rises for the workforce,18% of employers, pension providers and payroll software developers have said in a survey six months following the launch of AE

The University of Leicester pension scheme has appointed Aon Hewitt to provide actuarial advice and pensions administration. The scheme has around 2,200 members and assets of around £110 million

Pensioners living in Australia are left with up to 47% less buying power from their retirement income now than when they first retired, pension administrator Equiniti has warned

The Work and Pensions Select Committee has urged the government to do more to explain its single-tier pension reforms to the general public, and has argued that effective scrutiny of the draft Pensions Bill has been hampered as a result of bringing the implementation date forward to 2016

Insurance companies and banks are expected to take on £100bn-worth of liabilities from defined benefit (DB) pension schemes before the end of 2017, Hymans Robertson has said in its latest Managing Pension Scheme Risk report

Demand for residential property among institutional investors is on the rise as the sector continues to deliver attractive returns, PRUPIM has announced

The Royal Bank of Scotland Shareholder Action Group (RBOS), representing pensioners and shareholders who have lost money in the RBS 2008 rights issue, have launched a £4bn lawsuit against the bank and former directors Fred Goodwin, Tom McKillop, Johnny Cameron and Guy Whittaker

UK corporate pension deficits have risen by £60bn in March from £551bn to £611bn, latest figures from Xafinity have shown

The cashflow shortfall between public service pensions’ contributions and pensions in payment is set to rise to £16.2bn in 2017-18, Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) research fellow Michael Johnson has warned

DB pension scheme deficits for all UK private sector companies increased by £8bn between 2012 and 2013, yet the overall funding position improved marginally, from 88% to 89%, as a result of the value of both assets and liabilities increasing, finds JLT Pension Capital Strategies (PCS) monthly index

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has condemned the government’s “ill-thought out” decision to impose further increases in firefighters pension contributions

A total of 21 financial institutions, including a number of UK pension funds, have demanded full compensation from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) over the Rights Issue of April 2008 in which the bank asked shareholders for an extra £12bn to shore up its finances

Barnardo’s decision to close its defined benefit (DB) scheme means that the consultation has been closed “prematurely”, UNISON claimed

The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) proposed Code of Practice for defined contribution (DC) pensions risks being "counterproductive" according to the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), with concerns being raised over lack of clarity and the fact that half of the DC market will be left untouched

Premier has launched an online retirement service for employers and trustees, Gateway2Retirement. The new online service aims to help members understand all their pension options such as annuity, drawdown pension or phased retirement; and provides a “whole market” search of annuities rates

JLT Employee Benefits has appointed Jonathan Bloomer as non-executive chairman, subject to regulatory approval. Bloomer is senior independent director at Hargreaves Lansdown and has held non-executive roles at Autonomy and Railtrack. Most recently, Bloomer was European partner and senior member of the global operations team at Cerberus Capital.

Police officers from all over Scotland today lobbied at the Scottish Parliament for fair police pensions, the Scottish Police Federation has announced

Xafinity is calling on The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to implement an industry-wide central system for sharing resources in order to avoid duplication of work and costs in efforts to combat pension liberation fraud

Women retiring this year have the lowest annual retirement expectation since records began in 2008, at £6,500 a year less than their male counterparts, a report by Prudential has warned

Buyout transactions may increase this year due to improved affordability if gilt yields rise, Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) said on the release of its Pension Risk Tracker Index results for Q4 2012

Over 90 per cent of members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) have pledged their support for further industrial action in defence of their pensions

The Pensions Regulator’s chief executive Bill Galvin has announced that he will be leaving his current position at the end of June, to take up a new role as group chief executive of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)

Kingfisher has recorded a £71m surplus within its defined benefit (DB) scheme compared to a £25m surplus in 2011/12 according to its latest preliminary results

Defined contribution (DC) pension plan modelling needs to take into account wider ‘member characteristics’ such as gender, occupation and increases in life expectancy, according to a proposed set of principles for modelling DC pension plans

Fifty-six per cent of employers are completely unaware as to what auto-enrolment is, or do not even realise that it applies to their business according to latest research carried out by RSM Tenon

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation seeking views on proposals to improve the automatic enrolment process particularly around flexibility on pay reference periods

The British Medical Association (BMA) has expressed disappointment over the Department of Health’s (DH) decision to reject the claims of 3,000 doctors’ who argued that the NHS pension changes are unfair

Recruitment consultancy firm, Adecco Group, has appointed NOW: Pensions to provide its workplace pension scheme under the government’s auto-enrolment initiative

UNISON today published a proposal document outlining its arguments for investing Scottish council pension funds, worth £24.1bn, into affordable social housing in order to combat Scotland’s housing crisis

Small businesses could potentially be facing “huge problems” in the near future as the number of companies needed to introduce auto-enrolment will far exceed the support available from product providers and advisers according to AWD Chase de Vere corporate advice manager Jon Dixon

Fujitsu UK & Ireland has today received an £800m contribution from Fujitsu Limited which it has invested in its UK DB schemes which will “substantially improve funding positions” and also free up cash flow

AWD Chase de Vere has launched AE+, a three-step process to help small and medium-sized employers meet the requirements for automatic enrolment. The new AE+ system allows employers to select from three services, including: stage one analysis; stage two design; and stage three delivery

Legal & General has appointed Mike Edwards as a sales director and will join the existing pension scheme insurance de-risking solutions team, headed by Tom Ground. Edwards has over 9 years experience as a pensions consultant and joins Legal & General from KPMG, where he advised companies on the design and implementation of pension de-risking solutions

Trustees are currently being abandoned by The Pensions Regulator (TPR) when dealing with pension liberation issues according to Broadstone

The Local Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) has slammed Wandsworth’s Council data as ‘fundamentally flawed’ after the council stated that its own pension fund would be £100m worse off if it had invested with the LPFA over the last three years

Self-administered pension funds collected the highest level of contributions at a revised estimate of £17bn in the first quarter of 2012 – representing the highest level since records began in 1992, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found

Life expectancy rates for both men and women in England and Wales have increased, according to recent data from the Office for National Statistics

Over one-third (36%) of adults are more confused about their pension choices following recent pension reforms including the introduction of a single-tier state pension system and the roll-out of automatic enrolment, a survey has found

The government’s decision to widen investment opportunities within self invested pensions so as to incorporate residential property is ‘surprising’ according to Dentons

Pension schemes missed out on attractive levels for inflation hedging prior to the outcome of the Consumer Price Advisory Committee’s (CPAC) consultation into RPI, a survey by F&C Asset Management has revealed

The UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) has urged greater long-term investment focus, after yesterday’s Budget failed to strengthen government support for measures outlined in the Kay Review of Equity Markets and long-term decision making

The government has failed to combat the growing number of pension liberation cases which could see 90% of funds lost, MGM Advantage has said, following today’s Budget announcement

Chancellor George Osborne today announced that ‘smoothing’ of pension scheme assets and liabilities will not be introduced for scheme funding valuations

Chancellor George Osborne announced in today’s Budget that The Pensions Regulator (TPR) will have a new objective to support scheme funding arrangements that are compatible with sustainable growth for the sponsoring employer and fully consistent with the 2004 funding legislation

Chancellor George Osborne has today announced that the OBR has revised down UK growth forecasts to 0.6 per cent in 2013. A forecast of 2.9 per cent had been predicted for 2013 in 2010

Men are better at saving towards a pension than women, an annual survey by Halifax has found

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) new price indices “add to the uncertainty over how some defined benefit (DB) pensions will be increased in future” Towers Watson said following today’s publication of CPIH and RPIJ

Teachers across England and Wales are to stage a series of strike action over pensions, pay and working conditions, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) have announced today

The average FRS17 funding level of university pension schemes has dropped by 4% in the past year, the fourth University Self Administered Trusts (SATs) annual survey has found

Royal London has reached an agreement to take over The Co-operative Banking Group’s life insurance and asset management business for £219m

The average proportion of income saved into a pension is just 3%; with over half (52%) of women and 39% of men surveyed saying they are saving nothing at all for their retirement, while only 6% save more than one-tenth of their income, research from J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has found

CFA Institute and a team of financial industry leaders, chaired by economist John Kay, today announced the launch of the Future of Finance project, which aims to change the reputation of the financial industry by providing tools to ensure fairness, improved understanding, and personal integrity within the sector

Chancellor George Osborne has announced that the new flat-rate state pension of £144-a-week is being brought forward and will come into effect in April 2016 instead of 2017

Wandsworth Council has slammed London Pensions Fund Authority’s (LPFA) plans to merge LGPS schemes into a single £40bn fund as “disastrous” and Londoners would now be £2bn worse off if such a plan had already been implemented according to Wandsworth Council

The University of Birmingham has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as its pensions adviser, which will see the firm provide affordable funding solutions and manage its pension liabilities in line with the university’s objectives

UK corporate pension deficits fell from £621bn in January 2013 to £551bn in February 2013, due to the slowing outlook for price inflation and the strength of equity markets in 2013 according to Xafinity

Morrisons two defined benefit pension schemes, the Morrison and Safeway schemes, have seen total deficits reach £11m from a surplus of £38m in 2012 according to its latest financial results

The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) today announced that its director Niki Cleal will be stepping down around the time of the Institute’s annual general meeting on 5 June after seven years of service

Many financial and non-financial firms located in the EU are in a race to meet the first compliance deadline of the European Markets and Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), PwC has announced

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) today announced the appointment of Malcolm Weir as the new head of restructuring and insolvency

The Department for Communities and Local Government has today published responses to proposals to remove barriers preventing local government pension scheme funds from investing in infrastructure

The House of Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change has warned that the government is “woefully under-prepared” to deal with Britain’s rapidly ageing population and has called for a White Paper to be published before the next election, setting out how society needs to prepare to combat this issue

Grandchildren of former Visteon staff today delivered a letter to prime minister David Cameron calling for government support over pension losses four years ago when the company fell into administration

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has appointed Barry Kenneth as chief investment officer for its £13bn investment portfolio

Zurich has today launched a master trust aimed at larger employers, with Pitmans Trustees appointed as the trustee of the new master trust

Sponsors need to determine how they measure success before they can improve the outcome of DC schemes, J.P. Morgan Asset Management has advised in its white paper on scheme design

The pension funds of Royal Mail, Telent and Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (SAUL) have announced the launch of the Pensions Governance Index, tailored to measure the relationship between governance structures used by UK pension schemes and the investment required to maintain them

HMRC’s decision to remove the need for investors to have their income limits reviewed following a transfer if they are on pre-April 2011 rates and five-yearly reviews under capped drawdown legislation has been welcomed by Suffolk Life

Trustees of the Chamber of Shipping Retirement Benefits Plan have agreed an extension to its recently announced buy-in with the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), adding a further £9 million of pension liabilities already insured

Minister for Pensions Steve Webb has no regrets about the end of the so-called ‘state second pension’ or S2P under single-tier reforms, arguing that it was about reaching “that point of simplicity"

Chancellor George Osborne’s proposal to reduce the lifetime allowance to £1.2 million from 2014 means that many more pension savers could be heading towards a 55 per cent tax bill, Buck Consultants warned in a statement today

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has appointed Andrew Warwick-Thompson as executive director for defined contribution (DC), governance and administration

Around 50 per cent of people retiring each year do not shop around when choosing an annuity, and collectively could be losing out on income worth more than £237m over a typical 22 year retirement, according to MGM Advantage

The aggregate deficit of the 6,316 defined benefit schemes in the PPF 7800 index has decreased to £201.5bn at the end of February from £211.2bn from the end of January

The total deficit of FTSE 100 DB pension schemes has improved by £8bn compared to a year ago, leaving total deficits at £50bn at the end of 2012, new research from JLT Pension Capital Strategies (JLT PCS) revealed

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) should allow trustees greater flexibility over decisions on how to fund pension schemes, Mercer stated in its response to the government’s consultation report, Pensions and Growth

Liberal Democrat minister for pensions Steve Webb has slammed Labour for leaving the country’s pension system in a “mess” but nevertheless insisted that the “foundations for a fairer society” have started to be laid

Employment rates among both women and men have increased due to the one-year rise in the female state pension age, according to new research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)

Annuity rates have risen this month for the first time in almost a year, according to the JLT Annuity Bureau

The DWP’s suggested methods for smoothing assets and liabilities in pension scheme funding valuations would in many cases lead to higher deficits, the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has estimated in its response to the government’s call for evidence

Pension Protection Fund (PPF) chair Lady Barbara Judge today dispelled any worries that DB pension scheme trustees may have over contingent assets and added that she would be "very glad" to discuss with trustees their use to help reduce the risk of insolvency and to reduce schemes' underfunding

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has launched a new guide at its investment conference in Edinburgh to explain fiduciary management to pension fund trustees

Over three quarters of asset allocation (79%) by FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 DC schemes has been to equities, Schroders has revealed in its research that set out to explore whether asset class diversification was the ‘new normal’ in practice

'Smoothing' assets and liabilities to try and even out the impact of QE could backfire, locking many pension funds into low gilt yields, just as they start to recover, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) warned today

Fund managers could see an expected return of as little as 3% for global equities in the next 20 to 30 years, according to Professor Paul Marsh of the London Business School (LBS)

The secure long-term inflation linked income streams that are generated from investment in social housing and the funding needs of the housing associations themselves, has created a 'win-win' scenario for pension funds looking to invest in this asset class, according to Aviva Investors managing director Phil Redding

UK pension deficits fell by £7 billion during the month of February, fuelled by the recent rally in equities, according to Mercer’s Pensions Risk Survey data

The government's latest decision to increase the cap placed on the amount that local authority pension funds can invest through limited partnerships from 15 per cent to 30 per cent has been welcomed by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF)

The market volume of longevity transactions saw a significant decline in 2012, from five deals in 2011 worth £7bn of liabilities, to two transactions totalling £2.2bn in 2012, a report from Legal & General has found. The bulk purchase annuity market also declined, from £5.2bn for 2011 to £4bn last year

The current era of "uniquely low predictability" is one of the main causes for the tough environment that pension funds are finding themselves in according to former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair

Huge numbers of the population would qualify for an enhanced annuity if they were to declare all their medical and lifestyle conditions when choosing an annuity, which could boost their retirement income by an average of 25%, analysis has found

EU pensions regulation could inhibit long-term investments, an independent report commissioned by the Labour Party has found

Scottish independence is likely to create “considerable costs” within the pensions sector, particularly for employers, pension providers and their advisers, Xafinity has warned

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has today stated that UK auto-enrolment has made ‘good progress’ but emphasised a number of key areas that would improve overall adequacy and security of DC retirement income

Equity investment professionals are more confident about 2013’s markets than their fixed income counterparts, Aviva Investors’ annual fund manager survey has found

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) today voted in favour of industrial action over pensions, pay and working conditions.

Members backed strike action by 61 per cent while eight in 10 voted for other forms of industrial action. Turnout among its 250,000 members was 28 per cent

Rail Union RMT has today announced that it is to launch a fight against Balfour Beatty, after the construction company stated that it is proposing to cease future accrual in its defined benefit pension fund in a move that will affect 2,683 workers

Aviva is set to post a £3bn loss in its annual results this week and will also reveal whether it has decided to cut dividends according to latest reports

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has told the FTSE 350 that shareholders will not “tolerate unjustified executive rewards in the upcoming voting season"

The majority of potential contributors to defined contribution (DC) pension schemes would favour social investment funds over conventional funds, a survey commissioned by the Defined Contribution Investment Forum (DCIF) has found

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has concluded a pension insurance buy-in with the trustees of the Institute of Cancer Research Pension Scheme covering £30m of liabilities

A petition against Chancellor George Osborne’s decision to freeze Old Age Pensioners tax allowances and to cancel them for those turning 65 after 5 April 2013 has reached over 100,000 responses

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) have today both condemned the hike in pensions’ contributions that have to be paid by Scotland’s teachers

The deficits of all UK private sector DB pension schemes fell from £143bn to £117bn in the year to 28 February 2013 and funding levels increased from 88 per cent to 91 per cent according to JLT Pension Capital Strategies (PCS)

Friends Life has announced the full launch of its complete auto-enrolment solution. The solution includes a purpose-built online hub assessing employers’ payroll and HR data against the regulations, plus a suite of communications assisting the employer in fulfilling their duty to provide enrolment information to employees and a range of default investment solutions

The Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) retirement benefit liabilities have increased by £1.6bn for the year ended 31 December 2012, according to its latest annual results.

The Equiniti Group has announced its pension business will be rebranded under the Equiniti banner. As a result of this, Xafiniti Paymaster will be renamed Equiniti Paymaster and Xafinity Claybrook becomes Equiniti Claybrook

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has made the decision to suspend plans to increase the amount that MPs have to pay towards their pension scheme

The Life & Longevity Markets Association (LLMA) and Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has called for proposals for a research project to develop an industry benchmark for understanding longevity basis risk

ITV’s defined benefit pension deficit rose to £551m on 31 December 2012, £161m higher than at the end of the previous year, according to the broadcaster’s latest annual results

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has today launched a thematic review on record keeping targeting around 250 schemes

Merseyside glass manufacturer Pilkington Glass has informed its staff that their salaries will be frozen indefinitely unless they agree that their pensionable salary be fixed at their April 2013 pay levels

The disparity between the best and worst standard annuity rate has decreased from 20 percent in March 2012 to 8 per cent today, Fidelity Worldwide Investment has said. However, it added that shopping around is still essential

Almost half (45 per cent) of employees who do not currently take up the pension they are offered have stated that they do not have the cash to do so, according to Aviva’s second Working Lives report

Overall awareness and understanding of auto-enrolment among UK employers has significantly increased since spring 2012 according to latest research from The Pensions Regulator

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation surrounding the interaction between Transfer of Employment (Pension Protection) Regulations and automatic enrolment legislation

Equity release could lift more than a million of Britain’s poorer pensioner households from living in poverty for a year between 2012 and 2040, research commissioned by Just Retirement and conducted by Oxford Economics has found

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has today launched its code of conduct on annuity purchase, designed to help savers approaching retirement secure the best possible rates and understand their retirement choices

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) Pension Quality Mark has lowered its cap on charges to 0.75 per cent of pot size per year which could in turn leave people with a pension pot worth 8 per cent more

Women are set to experience an increase of around 40 per cent in their pension drawdown limits according to Standard Life

The average proposed timescale for UK pension schemes to reach their long-term objectives, including buyout and self-sufficiency, has increased by around one and a half years since 2009 according to Aon Hewitt

The UK has been stripped of its AAA credit rating and downgraded to Aa1 due to continued weaknesses in the UK’s medium-term growth outlook and higher debt levels

The number of workers signing up to workplace pensions has dropped to below half (46 per cent) and stands at the lowest level since records began, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found

The lack of competition within the audit market is likely to lead to higher prices, lower quality and less innovation for companies along with a failure to meet the demands of shareholders and investors, according to the Competition Commission’s (CC) provisional findings published today

Time is running out for those pension providers across Europe who feel they have something to shout about

A computer glitch at Legal & General has prevented around 12,000 pensioners from receiving their annuity payouts

BAE Systems has agreed a longevity swap with Legal & General in a transaction classed as the “single largest pensions insurance transaction in the UK to date”

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a public consultation asking for views on proposals to harmonise, simplify and consolidate regulations concerning the disclosure of information to members of occupational and personal pension schemes

Increasing numbers of British pre-retirees and pensioners are transferring their UK pension funds overseas in order to ‘safeguard’ them from government and Bank of England (BoE) policies according to the deVere Group

Half of pensioners are failing to claim hundreds of pounds of state benefits a year, thus resulting in a squeeze in their pension incomes, Just Retirement Solutions has warned today

The British Medical Association (BMA) has called on the government to reduce the “disproportionate impact” of pension contribution increases on NHS pensions staff, by introducing a “top three tier” cap

UK workers are the worst at saving for their retirement compared to those in 15 other countries across the world, according to HSBC

Bank of England (BoE) governor Sir Mervyn King has lost a vote calling for additional quantitative easing (QE) to boost economic growth in the UK

Defined benefit pension deficits shot up by £71bn to £621bn in January according to Xafinity Consulting’s corporate pension deficits tracker

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has launched an online guide to help employers and HR professionals understand how to auto-enrol staff into a workplace pension. The guide breaks the issue of auto-enrolment down into smaller sections and offers employers guidance on the whole process including: assessing eligibility, picking a pension scheme, administration and communication

Everything Everywhere, the UK’s largest mobile communications provider, saw its defined benefit pension deficits increase from £52m to £77m from 2011 to 2012 according to its latest financial statements

The annuity industry needs to move to individually underwritten quotes for all policies, similar to the protection market, Aviva has recommended in its Rethinking Retirement in the UK 2013 report

Enhanced annuity sales rose to £4.48bn in 2012, an increase of 49 per cent compared to 2011, research by Towers Watson found. This compares to £3.01bn in 2011 and £2.46bn in 2010

Barclays Corporate & Employer Solutions (C&ES) is teaming up with Aegon and Zurich to launch a corporate pension platform as part of the Barclays C&ES workplace savings offering

Annuity rates have continued to fall this month as a result of longevity trends within the UK, according to latest figures from The Annuity Bureau

HSBC’s defined benefit pension fund is to close to all existing members in June 2014 following a consultation with employees

Pension funds should use a run-off approach towards discounting their liabilities, rather than the current mark-to-market approach, the European head of J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Strategy Group Paul Sweeting has suggested

Two more pension funds have signed up to the Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) which has so far reached £1 billion in investment capital

Government amendments to the Public Service Pensions Bill “do not go far enough” and should aim to “curtail sweeping new powers that would allow future UK governments to make unilateral and retrospective changes to accrued benefits in public sector pension changes,” according to the British Medical Association (BMA).

The Isle of Man will consider whether it follows the UK’s state pensions reforms and introduce a single-tier pension of £142.70 per week, under a review of its reciprocal agreement with the UK

Jelf Employee Benefits has appointed Lee Coles as head of Jelf Money after Work, the retirement division within the team. Coles was previously communications and support manager at HSBC Life Company. Jo Thresher has been promoted to head of Jelf Money at Work, leading a team focused on financial education and employee engagement and Paul Beecham has been promoted to head of pensions consultancy, and will lead the team delivering consultancy services to employers and their pension schemes. Further, Alan Stevenson and Jon Wood have been promoted to corporate pension directors and will lead the development of corporate pension business.

Punter Southall has been appointed by the trustees of the Wightlink Pension Scheme to provide actuarial, consultancy and administration services

A new blueprint for building mortality models has been developed by the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has launched an information campaign to crackdown on incidences of false and misleading messages from companies that claim to be able to release pension cash as a loan or lump sum before age 55

The UK economy has “cause for optimism” and “a recovery is in sight”, according to the Bank of England’s governor Sir Mervyn King

Pension Quality Mark (PQM) has launched a new benchmark to help employers identify good quality multi-employer pension schemes or master trusts

The House of Lords has passed an amendment to the Public Service Pensions Bill which will ensure equal representation of employer representatives and member representatives on public sector pension boards

Almost six out of ten (57 per cent) retirees would consider working past the State Pension Age (SPA), revealing a shift in attitudes towards retirement according to Prudential

Ros Altmann is stepping down as Director-General of Saga and will continue as an independent as she was before joining the company, Altmann announced today

The aggregate deficit of the 6,316 schemes in the PPF 7800 Index decreased to £211.2bn at the end of January 2013, from a deficit of £244.7bn at the end of December

Scottish Life expects to see "good volumes of new business" this year as auto-enrolment (AE) rolls out, the pensions provider said on announcing its record new business results for 2012

Around 750,000 divorcees in the UK are set to claim for tens of thousands of pounds in lost financial entitlements as a result of changes to divorce pension rulings in 2000, a report by Divorce LifeLine has revealed

Just Retirement’s total annuity sales have surpassed £400m for the first time to hit £412m, latest figures have revealed

The government is to launch a consultation next month detailing proposals that could make the auto-enrolment process simpler for the pensions industry as a whole

Illegal ‘pension liberation’ scams have seen middle-aged people lose an estimated total of £400m from their pension funds since 2008, according to The Pension Regulator’s chief executive Bill Galvin

The government should remove the cap on annual contributions and the ban on transfers in and out of Nest as a “matter of urgency”, the Work and Pensions Committee has stated

Couples of same-sex marriages may not have access to the same pension benefits as opposite-sex married couples, international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has said

Pensioners and those nearing retirement need to rethink their investment plans and consider higher risk/higher return investments, deVere Group chief executive Nigel Green has advised

Five of the UK’s leading pension investors have called for a major rethink of executive pay in order to bring remuneration packages in line with long-term business performance

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has announced that it is to launch an online analytics and monitoring platform in partnership with Pensions First which will help small schemes looking to implement scheme-specific investment strategies

Riscura has appointed Andrew Slater to meet UK pension fund interests in emerging markets. He will be managing director for the company’s UK operation. Slater previously held positions with PwC as an actuary, director of institutional strategy at SEI Investments and was most recently managing director at Ortec Finance

Three-quarters of judges will avoid forthcoming cuts to their pensions, the government has said, as judges who are within 10 years of retirement in April 2012 are excluded from changes to the Judicial Pension Scheme

Swansea council acted unlawfully when transferring £20m from a pension fund to a bank account, according to a Wales Audit Office report

GMB, the union for public sector workers, has slammed the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) claim that the future cost of public service pensions could amount to more than £9bn a year as “total rubbish” and described the conclusions reached in their report as “bonkers”

Firms should be legally obliged to provide pension fee information under a transparency law, 92 per cent of UK adults has said according to research conducted by the True and Fair Campaign

Almost half of financial advisers (47 per cent) say employers feel unable to choose NEST because of the scheme’s annual contribution limit and/or transfer restrictions, a survey of 699 members of the Personal Finance Society (PFS) has found

The estimated deficit of the FTSE350 companies' DB schemes stood at £75bn at the end of January 2013, representing an equivalent funding ratio of 88 per cent, according to Mercer’s latest data

Part-time judges are entitled to the same pension, pro-rata, as full-time judges, the Supreme Court has ruled today

LV= has launched the ‘Retirement Centre’, a microsite created to provide advisers with practical and technical support for their business. The site features downloadable guides which contain technical information that advisers need to be aware of when discussing how clients structure their retirement

Tackling complexity, ensuring fair value and easing transferability are three areas that the pensions industry must focus on if defined ambition (DA) proposals are to be successful, according to Which? financial services chief advocate Doug Taylor

The hostile regulatory environment will result in fewer than 40 SIPP providers still operating by 2015, Suffolk Life has predicted. According to its head of marketing, Greg Kingston, there were ambiguous messages from the regulator in 2012 about its expected standards for SIPP providers, yet implementation of these standards start this year

Trustees of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes could save over 10 per cent by de-risking their pensioner sections through medical underwriting techniques in the bulk purchase annuity (BPA) market, a report by the Pensions Institute has revealed

The future cost of public service pensions could amount to more than £9bn a year above current expectations due to the “toxic tangle” of the Public Service Pensions Bill and the DWP White Paper on the single-tier pension according to a report published by the Centre for Policy Studies

Over two thirds (62 per cent) of employees over 50 have never increased their pension contributions thus jeopardising the likelihood that they will have a comfortable retirement period, latest figures from Friends Life have revealed

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has concluded a pension insurance buyout with the trustees of SR Technics UK pension scheme covering £200m of pension liabilities. The scheme was formerly in the PPF assessment process

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) has slammed the Department for Education’s (DfE) latest announcement that they are increasing pension contributions to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS) for the second year running

Defined benefit pension deficits continued to grow in January despite the UK’s best monthly stock market performance, according to figures by Towers Watson

Two thirds of small firms do not believe that few, larger schemes result in better value for money for savers and for employers according to a survey conducted by the Association of Consulting Actuaries

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) has called on the government to scrap restrictions on its scheme by next year

The National Audit Office (NAO) has refused to sign off fully the 2011-12 Civil Superannuation accounts after the Cabinet Office failed to provide it with sufficient records to confirm that pensioners have received correct payments in accordance with scheme rules

Cornwall Council pension fund has appointed Invesco Perpetual to manage a diversified growth mandate (DGF) which is believed to rise from £50m to £140m over the next year.

The UK should do all it can to “keep delaying” new IORP Directive proposals, before they cause considerable damage to the economy, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) chairman Mark Hyde Harrison has advised

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is set to launch an investigation today into the workings of the pensions annuity market

Pension fund assets in the UK have hit an all-time high of £1.7trn in 2012, having grown 5 per cent during the year and more than doubling in the past decade, Towers Watson’s Global Pension Assets Study has found

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames pension fund has appointed Aon Hewitt as its investment consultant

Many small and medium-sized organisations may not be factoring in sufficient time to implement automatic enrolment (AE) schemes, the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) today revealed

A new statutory objective for the Pensions Regulator (TPR) to consider the long-term affordability of deficit recovery plans to sponsoring employers would help to “rebalance scales” between member security and supporting the wider economy according to NAPF chairman Mark Hyde Harrison

Corporate pension deficits rose by a third to reach £550bn in 2012, with many companies having recorded their worst ever balance sheets according to Xafinity

The National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) has revealed that Iceland and Mitchells & Butlers are two of the latest household names that have opted to use its auto-enrolment savings scheme

Nest restrictions that cap pension contributions and restrict transfers from the scheme should be scrapped, according to 32 per cent of large employers that took part in a JLT Employee Benefits (JLT) survey

The effects of quantitative easing (QE) has left DB schemes fighting a £90bn pension bill and has “eroded the culture of saving”, MPs were told today

Commercial property fund investors across the UK have lost an average of 11.4% over the past five years, according to research by housing investment and shared equity mortgage provider, Castle Trust

Pension schemes preparing for buyout should have a contingency plan in place in case they miss their opportunity when market conditions are right to complete the transaction, Aon Hewitt has advised

The trustees of Kodak’s UK pension scheme have filed a claim for £1.8bn ($2.8bn) in the US courts against the US parent company Eastman Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy in January

A number of consumer groups, employer organisations and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) have today written to Pensions Minister Steve Webb, calling for the “urgent need” to lift restrictions on Nest

Private sector final salary pension schemes are closing to new staff at the fastest rate on record, with just 13 per cent open to new joiners in 2012, a drop of a third from 19 per cent in 2011 according to the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF)

The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a consultation on whether companies undergoing valuations of their DB pension deficits should be allowed to smooth the calculation of their asset and liabilities

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a consultation on whether The Pensions Regulator (TPR) should be given an additional objective to consider the long-term affordability of deficit recovery plans for sponsoring employers of defined benefit schemes

JLT Employee Benefits has announced the appointment of Kieran Harkin as senior investment consultant in JLT investment consulting. He joins from KPMG where he was the lead advisor to a number of DB and DC clients across the North West and the UK, from both a trustee and corporate perspective. Prior to this, he was a manager and investment consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and with HSBC Actuaries and Consultants.

Hornbuckle Mitchell has launched its Property Fast Track service for property investors which will see the transaction period slashed to within four weeks. The service is available to investors who wish to place commercial property within their SIPP or SSAS and do not require borrowing

UK GDP is estimated to have decreased by 0.3 per cent in Q4 2012 compared with Q3 2012, the Office for National Statistics announced today

Police minister Damian Green has today written to the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) to consider an increase in contribution rates for 2013-14, taking effect from 1 April 2013

The Incentive Exercises Monitoring Board has welcomed the clauses in the recent draft Pensions Bill that give the government the ability to prohibit the use of non-pension incentives

Annuity providers have failed to provide stronger rates this month despite a legislative ban on ratings by gender, The Annuity Bureau from JLT has said on the release of the latest annuity rates

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced today that it will set up three new professional panels to help manage schemes through assessment and wind-up processes

The National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) today unveiled a series of updates to its payroll system that aims to improve information sharing between payroll providers and Nest

Pensions Minister Steve Webb announced today that a pension charge cap is currently not needed within the industry, unless there is significant evidence that people are being enrolled into poor value pensions

The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) is the first organisation to complete the Pensions Management Institute’s (PMI) new certificate in auto-enrolment

Defined contribution (DC) now accounts for 27 per cent of workplace pension memberships, with 30 per cent of active DC members being in trust-based schemes and 70 per cent in contract-based schemes, the latest data from The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has revealed

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has appointed chief financial officer Andy McKinnon as an executive director to its board

Pensions minister Steve Webb has today stated that more evidence must be obtained if the government is to lift Nest restrictions, which industry figures argue are causing unnecessary complexity to employers’ decision making

Reactive policies in response to resource constraints could lead to the collapse of pension savings, according to forward-looking research examining resource constraints and the risks they pose to the financial services and global economy

Forecasters possibly getting wrong the need for infrastructure in the long term is one of five key risks to the value for money of projects included in the government’s national infrastructure plan, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said

The Work and Pensions Select Committee is to carry out pre-legislative scrutiny on the draft Bill on the single-tier state pension, particularly areas relating to the impact on women and the self-employed

The Pensions Trust has today outlined its charging structure for its auto-enrolment offering, Smarter Pensions, which is set to launch on 4 March

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is consulting over plans to allow employers to override the protected persons regulations (PPRs) as a way to offset the rise in costs to those affected by the removal of contracting-out.

The Pensions Age Spring Conference: Meeting member needs, offers pension funds and professionals some much needed guidance on managing pensions in today's unpredictable environment, with a focus on ensuring delivery of the best possible outcome for members

Cookson Group Pension Plan has signed a second bulk annuity policy worth £30m with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), following the £320m buy-in in July 2012. The trustees were advised by Aon Hewitt

The average annuity rate on a £50,000 pension pot over a 20 year retirement period will pay £14,180 less income today compared to three years ago MGM Advantage has calculated

The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that it has ended pension negotiations with the Scottish government, following clarification from Scottish ministers that there was no alternative to proposed UK-wide pension contribution increases

The Western United Group Pension Scheme has entered into a £115m buy-in with Rothesay Life. The trustees were advised by Lane Clark and Peacock

The total deficit of FTSE 250 pension schemes is estimated to have been £9bn at 30 June 2012, a deterioration of £3bn from the same point 12 months ago, JLT Pension Capital Strategies has revealed

The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and the Occupational Pensions Defence Union (OPDU) have joined forces to launch a continuing professional development (CPD) initiative that aims to boost standards of governance among trustee boards

The majority of current employees reaching state pension age in the next 40 years will receive a higher state pension due to the state pension reforms, according to new single tier figures published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) today

The government today published the draft Pensions Bill on the single tier, flat-rate state pension and it has asked the Work and Pensions Committee to conduct the pre-legislative scrutiny of the reform proposals

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) will be given increased powers to decide which self-employed pension savers to admit into its pension scheme, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed yesterday

FTSE350 companies are set to see £20bn wiped off their balance sheets as a result of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) announcement that the existing method of calculating RPI is to be retained, Mercer said

Administration, risk control and competitive fees are the three key considerations that drive decisions over choice of platform providers for defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, a report by BNY Mellon in association with Cerulli Associates, has found

An online e-petition demanding pension justice for troops has reached over 13,000 signatures and has therefore triggered a compulsory response from the Ministry of Defence government department

Defined contribution (DC) pension schemes will be scrutinised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to assess whether they offer ‘value for money’, under a new market study launched today

Parliament has put an end to the situation whereby MPs decide their own pay and pension arrangements, instead giving the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) the powers to decide this

Trustees should ensure they understand the nature of any security or contingent asset that they are being given, Spence and Partners director and head of its trustee advisory practice Marian Elliott said

Around 250,000 civil and public servants will be balloted for strike action after the government refused to negotiate over cuts to pensions, pay and working conditions, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) announced today

Children’s charity Barnardo’s has announced that it is proposing to close its career average staff pension, a decision that UNISON has described as “premature” and a “real betrayal” to staff

Three new non-executive directors have joined The Pensions Regulator, the Department for Work and Pensions has announced

Around 1.5 million employers signing up to auto-enrolment are set to receive correspondence advising them to choose schemes that comply with the regulator’s six principles for workplace DC schemes, the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee heard yesterday

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been urged to press forward with its defined ambition (DA) proposals after contracting out came to an end yesterday

The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) has invited tenders for a single or multiple products to achieve exposure to UK direct and global listed real estate

Britain’s largest trade union, Unite, has today slammed government plans to fund the state pension through the reduction of state benefits for average earners, arguing that it should be financed through progressive taxation instead

A new flat-rate state pension of £144-a-week will come into effect in 2017 at the earliest, ending the complexities inherent within the current system, the government has announced

Fourteen of the leading pension providers will disclose any pension charges that they levy on people in workplace pension schemes as part of a signed agreement laid down by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The NAPF has appointed Helen Roberts to lead its work on investment issues. She will engage in the debate around low gilt yields and the impact of the current economic environment on asset allocation strategies, consider the implications of the economic outlook for funds when trading off risk and return. She previously worked for F&C Asset Management where she was head of government bonds for over 13 years

Spence & Partners is the latest organisation to sign up to Aries Pensions Club. The Aries Pensions System is the foundation of the pensions technical support service now used by around 100 organisations throughout the industry including consultants, administrators, pension funds and specialist providers

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recommendation to keep the retail price index (RPI) as a measure of inflation, but that a co-existing alternative version of RPI, called the RPIJ, be created to tackle the ‘flaws’ in the current RPI formula has received mixed views from the pensions industry

ITM has secured a contract with Towers Watson that will see the latter granted the right to use the data specialist’s eDAaRT software to identify incomplete or unreliable data and prepare tailored pension plans to address deficiencies for UK pension schemes

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has today published a range of new and updated standards that defined contribution (DC) pension schemes should meet in order for individuals to receive the best retirement saving outcomes

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has today announced that it plans to develop in conjunction with industry, a regulatory framework which addresses the “inherent complexities” surrounding master trusts.

Members of the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (SAUL) will from today only be permitted to transfer benefits into the scheme from another that is on the public sector transfer club list. Non-club transfers will be suspended

UK adults retiring in 2013 expect average retirement incomes of £15,300 per year, £200 less than in 2012 and 18 per cent lower than what they would have received in 2008 according to Prudential.

An anomaly in the government’s pension legislation will force around 1,600 Ministry of Defence (MoD) firefighters to work until they are 68, an issue that they hope to fight in Parliament.

The accounting deficit for the defined benefit (DB) pension schemes of the FTSE350 companies reached £62bn by 31 December 2012, a £1bn increase from the £61bn deficit at the end of December 2011, according to Mercer’s Pensions Risk Survey

The aggregate deficit of DB schemes has decreased from £252.2bn at the end of November 2012 to £244.7bn at the end of December 2012, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has estimated

The bulk buy-in market is set to exceed £5bn this year, its highest level for five years according to Towers Watson. The firm also believes that there will be a surge in annuity alternatives

Asset-backed funding of pension schemes continued to grow in 2012 with a material increase expected in 2013, KPMG said

Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg failed to provide any further information surrounding the plan for a single-tier flat rate state pension, in the Coalition’s Mid-Term Review published today. Instead the government placed greater emphasis on longevity issues.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has today fully outlined its actions that enabled the restructuring of the UK Coal Group thus ensuring an improved outlook for the business

The trustees of the Chamber of Shipping Retirement Benefits Plan have concluded a pension insurance buy-in deal with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) covering £40m of the scheme’s pension liabilities

Grocery retailer Asda has implemented HR and payroll provider Ceridian UK’s auto-enrolment module to help meet its new pension reform obligations, covering 175,000 employees

Pramerica Fixed Income has hired Simon Males as managing director of institutional client relations. He will be responsible for the UK market and pan-European consultants, developing and marketing the company’s strategies to pension funds, financial and other institutions. Prior to this, he was head of global consultants and UK institutional business for Pictet Asset Management

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has announced that Labour is set to restrict tax relief on pensions for those earning over £150,000 a year in order to reduce current unemployment levels.

Only 20 per cent of all annuities sold are enhanced for health or lifestyle reasons despite nearly a third of people at retirement age being obese, according to Just Retirement

Aggregate deficits of FTSE 100 companies contracted to £27bn following yesterday’s market movements, down from £35bn on 31 December 2012 according to Towers Watson

One in three businesses plan to pay lower DC contributions to current non-scheme members once they are auto-enrolled, compared to the current contribution levels they give to existing members, according to a survey by Aon Hewitt

Just 51 per cent of medium DC schemes and 18 per cent of small schemes display the necessary features for good outcomes for retirement savers according to research conducted among 300 trust-based occupational DC schemes by The Pensions Regulator (TPR).

The transition to a new flat rate state pension could be eased if the government paid out S2P benefits in a one-off cash lump sum leaving the flat rate pension to continue as a regular weekly or monthly payment going forward, Barnett Waddingham consultant Malcolm McLean has advised

Trustees are being urged to take much greater responsibility for the review of their sponsor covenant in order to save on adviser costs, Atkin & Co has advised

Average combined pension contributions by employers and employees into defined contribution (DC) schemes at smaller firms have flatlined in an ‘alarming trend’ since 2010, the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has stated.

Deficits of all defined benefit (DB) pension schemes were recorded at £118bn at the end of December, a reduction of £2bn from corresponding figures released on 31 December 2011

BRICs are expected to deliver good performance in 2013, following on from the gradual improvement that has been seen since September 2012, ING Investment Management has predicated

Real estate investors will continue to encounter low interest rates, muted inflation and sluggish growth in most of the world’s major real estate markets for at least the next couple of years, yet steady economic improvement in 2013 will benefit the sector, according to LaSalle Investment Management

Money market funds (MMFs) are adequately positioned to face challenging market conditions and ongoing regulatory uncertainty in 2013, Fitch Ratings has predicted, as it expects MMFs to manage their portfolios conservatively with respect to credit, interest rate and liquidity risks

Only one of five working people currently not paying into a pension plan to stay auto-enrolled, research from Harris Interactive has found

New speakers have been announced for the Pensions Age Summit - A Broader Outlook: Expanding the quest for yield, in association with J.P. Morgan Asset Management

The outlook for equities in 2013 is ‘cautiously positive’, as the US and China stabilises, Europe’s deterioration decelerates and emerging markets achieve solid performance, Schroders experts have advised

Punter Southall has been appointed by The Sports and Recreation Trust Association, known as sporta, to advise on auto-enrolment. Sporta has more than 100 member trusts across the UK, made up of former local authority leisure and cultural organisations. Now 36 of them have banded together to establish an auto-enrolment scheme, allowing participants to benefit from the greater economies of scale that a larger group can negotiate

Women taking capped income from their pension could receive an income uplift next tax year of up to 33% due to the gender neutrality regulation coming into effect on 21 December, along with the formula used to calculate maximum capped income withdrawal levels will see a 20% uplift following the Chancellor’s autumn statement, according to Skandia

Over 80% of advisers are encouraging their clients to supplement their pension with other retirement saving strategies as a result of the changes announced in the Chancellor’s pre-budget report, research from Albion Ventures has found

According to the latest Barings Investment Barometer, 61% of financial advisers believed increased exposure to emerging market equities was needed, an increase of 19% since September’s barometer

Auto-enrolment will continue to dominate the UK pensions landscape in 2013, while members are likely to receive better outcomes as pension charges are expected to continue to be under scrutiny

The government will amend the Pensions Act 2008 to ensure that employees with access solely to a DC pension do not have their auto-enrolment deferred, even if they are in a hybrid scheme

Male pensioners will see their annuity payments reduced by up to £10,000 over their lifetime as a result of the EU Gender Directive, PwC has predicted

Fixed income investors will face a tougher ride for returns in 2013 than they did in 2012, therefore requiring an actively managed investment approach, industry experts have advised

The global economic environment will remain challenging and uncertain during 2013, but it will also offer opportunities for pension fund investors

The effect of the upcoming Test-Achats gender neutrality insurance factors on when retirees should use their open market option (OMO) needs to be made clear to avoid a mis-selling scandal, SHILLING Communication has warned

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has confirmed that its 2013/14 pension protection levy will be £630m, as originally proposed

Employees are over three times more likely to select desirable gadgets than alternative methods for workplace savings when offered flexible benefits, Capita Employee Benefits has found

Trustees should focus more on achieving better funding levels when appointing a fiduciary manager, in addition to the governance benefits that can be achieved, Cardano has said

Single-life annuity rates have dropped this month, while smokers’ rates have slightly recovered from the fluctuation they experienced in the last few months, the Annuity Bureau has found

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has reinsured a further £400m tranche of longevity risk with Munich Re, taking the amount of longevity risk that PIC has reinsured during 2012 to £1bn

Rupert Pennant-Rea has been appointed as Royal London's non-executive chairman, following current chairman Tim Melville-Ross' retirement. Pennant-Rea was appointed as non-executive chairman of Henderson Group in March 2005. He is a former deputy governor of the Bank of England and editor of The Economist. He is also non-executive chairman of The Economist Group and a non-executive director of Go-Ahead Group, Gold Fields Limited (South Africa) and Hochschild Mining. He will join the Royal London Group Board with immediate effect and become non-executive Chairman at the AGM on 28 May 2013

A group of 22 pension schemes have lost a court case against Henderson Global Investors. The schemes were seeking damages from the company over an alleged breach of mandate under agreements relation to private finance initiative (PFI) investments

Andrew Long has been announced as the new chair of the Determinations Panel of The Pensions Regulator (TPR). He will take up his position in April 2013, when current panel chair John Scampion will stand down after his second term of office

The proposed single-tier state pension will result in higher earners receiving around £20 a week less than they currently get, Pensions Minister Steve Webb has said

The Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) has called for ‘risk sharing’ for MP pensions reforms in its response to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) consultation into MPs' pay and pensions

Only 16 per cent of employers believe their employees are saving enough for retirement, with 18 per cent believing their workforce is aware of the various retirement income options available and 13 per cent saying their workers are aware they no longer have to purchase an annuity, a survey by WEALTH at work has found

General Motors UK Retirees Pension Plan has entered into a £230m bulk annuity transaction with Rothesay Life, securing the benefits for all 11,000 members of the scheme

The Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF) has entered into a bulk annuity deal with Rothesay Life, covering around £680m of pension benefits, making it the largest bulk annuity transaction to have been completed during 2012

Only 46% of couples make joint retirement arrangements to ensure the remaining spouse will continue to receive income when they pass away, research from Prudential has found

Only one in three SME employers (38 per cent) is ready for auto-enrolment, research by Jelf Employee Benefits has shown. In May 2012, 31 per cent had started to prepare, compared to 29.5 per cent in May 2011

Auto-enrolment will to some extent result in greater risk averse investment strategies according to 39.2 per cent of UK pension professionals, while 19.6 per cent believe it will definitely have an impact, a poll by Baring Asset Management has found. Only 2.2 per cent said that it will definitely not have an impact

Standard Life Investments has been awarded a fixed income mandate by Cumbria County Council, following a lengthy tender process. The £130m segregated mandate for sterling corporate bonds will be managed on a buy and maintain basis

LV= has completed a £800m longevity insurance contract with reinsurer Swiss Re in the first pension scheme longevity deal that insures the exposure of members yet to retire, the companies claim

The combined deficit of the 6,316 schemes in the PPF 7800 index has increased from £235.7bn at the end of October to £252.2bn at the end of November, while the funding ratio decreased from 81.7 per cent to 80.8 per cent

Solvency II for pensions would force £350bn of extra costs on UK businesses and cut long-term growth by potentially 2.5 per cent, combined with 180,000 job losses and the devaluation of pensions, new independent analysis by Oxford Economics and commissioned by the CBI has found

Average annual actuarial fees have dropped from 2010 to 2011, but slightly increased from 2011 to 2012, although they remain lower than in 2010, a survey by Kim Gubler Consulting (KGC) has found

Over £900m of buyout deals took place during the third quarter of 2012, resulting in £2.5bn of total business written during the year so far, according to JLT Pension Capital Strategies (PCS)

UK Coal has been split into two separate mining and property businesses, with the mining business continuing as the employer sponsor of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme and Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme, and the two schemes now owning 75.1 per cent of the new property business

Pensions Minister Steve Webb has announced that the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) compensation cap is to be reviewed over fears that the current cap for those who have not reached scheme pension age is acting in a “penal way”

The Association of Corporate Trustees (TACT) has appointed Eversheds partner Giles Orton as its president. He takes over the role of President from Wilson Cotton of Smith & Williamson

Transport for London’s pension fund is increasing its allocation to hedge funds, as the fund has planned to invest a quarter of its cash in alternatives

Trustees of the Tate & Lyle final salary scheme have entered a partial pensioner buy-in agreement with Legal & General for £374m

Barnett Waddingham has launched a free online SSAS analysis tool for SSAS members and for advisers worried about compliance with SSAS rules. The interactive questionnaire consisting of 10 simple multiple choice questions, identifies key areas that might indicate whether a SSAS is being run correctly or is in need of attention, and produces a personalised report which is emailed to your inbox

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has announced that its method of calculating compensation for men and women under the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMPs) method will apply to all schemes in its assessment

Advisers will charge 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent per annum in annual management charges post-RDR, a Schroders' survey has revealed

The government is set to restore the 120 per cent GAD rate for capped drawdown users increasing the level from the 100 per cent rate. No date for this has been announced however

The basic state pension is set to rise by 2.5 per cent next April, “higher than either earnings or inflation”, Chancellor George Osborne confirmed today in his Autumn Statement

Today’s Autumn Statement has provoked many responses from the pensions industry. While the entire industry has branded the reduction of the lifetime and annual allowance a mixed message from a government trying to get more people to save for retirement, opinions vary on the consultation on discount rates

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has announced that the UK economy will contract by 0.1 per cent this year, a significant change from predictions announced in the Budget in March

Just Retirement has launched a new defined benefits proposition offering de-risking solutions to employers and trustees, which will target small and medium-sized schemes with up to 300 members

The annual allowance will be cut from £50,000 to £40,000, which will save the Treasury £1bn a year by 2016/17, Chancellor George Osborne announced in his Autumn Statement today. Furthermore, the lifetime allowance will be reduced from £1.5m to £1.25m