Product category:
Pensions and retirement
News Release from: Scottish Widows | Subject: Pension schemes
Edited by the Insidemoneytalk Editorial
Team on 09 January 2008
Scottish Widows urges the government to
fulfil commitment to Personal Accounts
Annual limit on contributions of andpound;3,600 should be in the Bill Scottish Widows support the ban on transfers before 2017 Government should reconsider policy on women and pensions
Ian Naismith, head of pensions market development at Scottish Widows comments: "Ahead of the second reading of the Pensions Bill on Personal Accounts we are urging the Government to remain committed to the proposals originally set out In particular, the £3,600 annual limit on contributions should be in the Bill
This article was originally published on Insidemoneytalk on 26 Feb 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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This will ensure that Personal Accounts are focussed on the target market of those who have currently no pension provision.
We also support the ban on transfers in and out of the scheme before 2017 at the earliest, which again was announced by the Government but not include din the Bill.
This will ensure that people begin to build up an adequate pension pot, particularly for those that have not previously saved into a pension scheme.
"The Bill will also allow the Government to subsidise Personal Accounts, for example through interest-free loans to fund start-up costs.
This goes against previous commitments and is also anti-competitive.
There must be a level playing field for existing good employer arrangements and Personal Accounts, and as the Bill is currently drafted this is not the case.
"One issue that Scottish Widows has campaigned on for some time is women and pensions." The Government is failing to follow through on Baroness Hollis's amendment that older women should be allow to buy back up to nine years of missed national insurance contributions that would boost their eventual state pension.
This makes it more likely that women close to retirement could lose out on means-tested benefits if they're auto-enrolled into Personal Accounts.
According to the Scottish Widows Pensions Report, almost a third of women (31%) are not saving anything for retirement." Stats from the Scottish Widows Pensions Report 2007: 40% of those currently with no pension scheme do not think they will ever start to save; 22% of those that are saving say they cannot save anymore than they currently do; Only one in five workers say they will definitely not opt out of Personal Accounts; People would only contribute on average £29 into Personal Accounts; One in ten people anticipate that they will contribute nothing into the forthcoming Personal Accounts scheme.
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