Welfare Reform on the Web (June 2005): Pensions - UK

£250,000 lottery gift to solve pensioner tax issues

P. Inman

The Guardian, May 24th 2005, p.19

Pensioners on low incomes will soon benefit from a £250,000 lottery donation that could ease the burden of filling in their tax returns and help them sort out a 'too complex' system. Charity Tax Volunteers said the gift was essential because older people, many with several small or occupational pensions, faced difficulties dealing with several tax offices and the confusing questions in their tax returns. Opposition MPs criticised the move which they said showed tax had become increasingly complex.

Pension funding crisis is a self-inflicted disaster

G. Fraser-Sampson

Pensions International, Apr. 2005, p.18-19

Argues that the funding crisis which is leading to the closure of final salary schemes in the UK is a self-inflicted disaster. It is the direct result of incompetence on the part of fund managers, who have failed to adopt a multi-asset class approach to investment allocation.

'Working class' may escape plans to pay pensions later

D. Chater

The Times, May 23rd 2005, p.4

Social groups with lower life expectancy might escape a rise in the pension age, the Government's pension adviser said last night. Adair Turner, the head of the Pensions Commission, suggested that a rise in the state pension age was inevitable over time for many taxpayers but he denied reports that graduates would find themselves banned from taking the state pension as a group until they were 70.