Interesting News

News Bulletins

November 2010 - E-NEWS

Please browse through this month’s articles using the links below and contact us if any issues or questions arise.

Track down your missing pension, says minister

People who have lost touch with workplace pension schemes from previous employers, as well as personal schemes, are being urged to track them down to ensure they receive all of their entitlements in retirement.

More than 350,000 people have used the free Pension Tracing Service since it was set up in 2005 by the Department for Work and Pensions.
A recent survey of customers shows that around one in five found a lost pension after using the service, resulting in average weekly payments of £16 or an average lump sum of £1,900, with some people receiving both a weekly payment and a lump sum.

Five per cent of customers surveyed received weekly payments of more than £100 and seven per cent received a lump sum in excess of £20,000.
Of those surveyed, 68 per cent cited moving on from an employer as the reason for losing track of a pension. Other reasons included moving house, employers changing name or closing down and simply losing the paperwork.

Pensions Minister Steve Webb said: "People need to make sure they’re claiming everything they’re entitled to in retirement. If you think you may have had a pension in a previous job or you once paid into a personal scheme that you had forgotten about, then the Pension Tracing Service may be able to help you to recover the money you invested."

The service uses a database containing information on more than 200,000 pension schemes to provide provides contact details of the potential scheme administrator to enable customers to make further enquiries.

The Pension Tracing Service can be contacted on 0845 600 2537 (textphone 0845 300 0169). Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. 

LINK: The Pensions Tracing Service

For more information contact Alan Williams, Director on 023 8046 1200.

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Considering a strategic partnership?

Data from Companies House reveals that strategic business partnerships are on the rise. In fact, there has been a 50 percent increase since 2008.
Certainly arrangements such as joint ventures and strategic alliances can deliver a number of advantages including:

  • Increased capacity
  • Access to new markets, especially overseas
  • A wider distribution network
  • Access to additional technology, staff, and finance
  • Spreading of risks and costs with other parties

However, they can and do go wrong, especially if they are not well researched beforehand or there is a fundamental incompatibility of aims or expectations between the partners.

If you are thinking of going down this route, please contact Richard Hurst, Director on 023 8046 1200 who would be happy to advise and assist in this area.

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Tax tip: Reducing CGT exposure

Couples with sizeable assets such as property or shares might consider joint ownership where the asset is likely to result in a capital gain. This way they can take advantage of both personal allowances, currently, £10,100 per person, and realise up to £20,200 of gains before capital gains tax (CGT) becomes payable.

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New enterprise allowance boost for start-up firms

People who have been unemployed for six months and want to start their own business will be offered access to business mentoring and financial support of up to £2,000.

The New Enterprise Allowance was announced by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith at the Conservative conference in October.

Mr Duncan Smith told the conference: “If you have been unemployed for six months and want to start your own business, we want to support you.

“We will provide business mentoring and a financial package worth up to £2,000 to get your business up and running. We want to see 10,000 new small businesses by next year.”

Mr Duncan Smith pledged to work with the voluntary sector to set up the mentoring back-up for those taking advantage of the scheme.

According to figures from the Federation of Small Businesses, more than 500,000 people start their own businesses each year and Britain’s five million small enterprises – employing between ten and 50 people – contribute 49 per cent of the national turnover.

LINK: Starting up in business

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State pension age to rise to 66 by 2020

Chancellor George Osborne has announced a faster than expected rise in the state pension age as part of his October Spending Review.

Mr Osborne told the House of Commons that the state pension age for men and women would reach 66 by the year 2020.

This will involve a gradual increase in the state pension age from 65 to 66, starting in 2018. It will also accelerate the increase in the female pension age already under way since this April.

Mr Osborne said: “Raising the state pension age is what many countries are now doing and will by the end of the next Parliament save over £5 billion a year – money which will be used to provide a more generous basic state pension as we manage demographic pressures.”

Following the 20 October announcement, it has been widely reported that the government plans a Green Paper to increase the state pension to around £140 per week with means tested top-ups scrapped.

Currently, the full basic state pension is £97.65 per week for a single person and £156.15 per week for a married couple, unless the couple's individual state pensions are higher.

The Green Paper is expected to be published before the end of the year.

The previous Labour government had planned to raise the age at which men could claim their state pension to 66 by 2024 and by 2026 for women.

LINK: State pension and retirement

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Business quangos bite dust

Regional Development Agencies are among the business-related quangos that face the axe or other changes in a government shake-up.
A Cabinet Office announcement on 14 October confirmed a previous announcement that the eight agencies will be abolished, with those functions to be retained transferred to central or local government and others.

A total of 192 quangos (quasi-autonomous non-government organisations) will cease to be public bodies and their functions will be brought back into government, devolved to local government, moved out of government or abolished altogether

Other business-linked organisations affected in the shake-up include:

  • Competition Commission: government will consult in the new year on a merger with the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading
  • Construction Industry Training Board: consideration to be completed by November 2010 of transferring body and functions to private sector status
  • Copyright Tribunal: subject to final agreement, jurisdiction of the tribunal to be transferred into the Ministry of Justice tribunal service
  • UK Commission for Employment and Skills: a review is to be completed by the end of the year of the commission’s core functions and the most appropriate structure to deliver a simplified skills landscape.

The government also plans to merge 118 bodies down to 57 and to retain and substantially reform a further 171. A total of 380 organisations will be retained.

LINK: Cabinet Office announcement

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