News Pensions

[Embattle]

We've been told for many years how important it is to have a pension yet examples like BHS seem to imply that the government is again talking a lot but lacking the creditability when it actually comes to protecting pensions, at the moment it looks like the public will be picking up the tab for the BHS pension shortfall.

 

[Hawkwind]

So a company does the wrong thing and you blame the government. Sorry, don't get it. I always thought it was the trustees who have a moral obligations and legal duty of care to make sure the money from pension funds is invested wisely. Maybe it's changed since I left the UK.

 

[Embattle]

I blame the government for seemingly allowing companies to keep under funding the pension funds they have while paying out large sums of money, it is the lack of policy that results in such abhorrent behaviour. I also blame them for clearly not properly funding the relevant bodies that investigate companies such as HMRC, Pensions regulators, etc which appears to of been proven today when the Pensions regulator was revealed to still be investigating the sale of BHS to Retail Acquisitions a year later and after they collapsed.

 

[Raven]

No company should be allowed to run with a pension deficit. The money is taken (and matched, given, whatever the pension arrangements are for any particular company) in good faith and should be set aside, protected and guaranteed. Sure, gamble with it on the stock exchange or whatever to elevate or boost your pot but if you lose, then sorry champ, it comes off your profit.

 

[Scouse]

Take it back off the shareholders.

 

[Moriath]

I dont know what type of pension plan the bhs one so its hard to say but the final salary percentage ones were normally where the big defecits came as the companies didnt budget on how much it would cost them and the stock market under performed. If you have a normal pension fund which doesnt guarantee an ampunt you dont get into that situation. So unless they been raiding the pot then i guess its the former type.

 

[Embattle]

Pensions Deficits - http://www.pensionprotectionfund.org.uk/DocumentLibrary/Documents/PPF_7800_April_16.pdf

Quick guide to BHS - The BHS scandal... in 2 minutes - BBC News

 

[Wij]

I don't trust workplace pensions at all. They constantly devalue them. Pay for my own now.

 

[dysfunction]

Work give me a pension contribution of 12% of my salary so not having it would be like throwing money away.

 

[Moriath]

I get 6% contribution from my employer that would be an aweful lot of money i would have to find for myself if ididnt use it

 

[Wij]

Work give me a pension contribution of 12% of my salary so not having it would be like throwing money away.

Point taken but I work for myself.

 

[SilverHood]

The US have it right when it comes to private pensions - privately funded 401k's. Everything else is a time bomb waiting to happen.

 

[Tom]

I have a private pension, there are loads of people I know who are also self employed but who have no provision. It's scary.

 

[old.user4556]

I have a private pension, there are loads of people I know who are also self employed but who have no provision. It's scary.

YOLO *finger snap*.

 

[SilverHood]

I have a private pension, there are loads of people I know who are also self employed but who have no provision. It's scary.

Yeah, it frightened me no end when I moved over here, that my company had no pension plan for their employees. We pay social security every month, kind of like NI, except it goes to a dedicated pot, but no allowance has been made for people living 20-30 years longer than we did 20 years ago, or the fact that population is growing. By the time I'm eligible in 40 years time, the pot is going to be empty, or the payments so tiny it's barely going to be worth the hassle of the paperwork. In the USA, you are on your own. Incidentally, when I switched jobs, new company contributed directly to my own private pension plan, matching 4-6% of what I put in myself. It vests, so if I leave, I lose some of it. Better than nothing though!

Los of US companies, towns and states are going to go bust in the near future, ie next 10-20 years, as they can't make pension payments. A ex-colleague I worked with a few years ago had a pension tied up to his company that went bust during financial crisis. Twenty seven years and $500,000 down the drain. He is lucky that his wife and her family are loaded and run their own company, otherwise they'd be looking at a pretty bleak retirement scenario, with 10 years to make up the lost cash. I guess if it happens to Government employees, the US Federal Reserve can always print more money.