“Rishi Sunak commits to retention of state pension triple-lock”

Aug 21, 2023 | Pensions

The cynical might say that newly arrived in power and with five years ahead in which bad stuff can be forgotten, the decision to keep the ‘triple lock’ in place might have been otherwise. Ensuring that the state pension goes up in line with the worst/best measure of inflation is expensive, but then so would be the votes lost by watering it down or scrapping it. Particularly as other benefits designed to ‘end pensioner poverty’, pension credits and the like have been watered down since G Brown introduced them. And those left are devilishly difficult and require huge amounts of patience to claim, as anyone who’s tackled the forms and ‘phone calls will tell you. At least once you have your state pension, you have it. For now.

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“NatWest buys 85% stake in pensions fintech Cushon”

“NatWest buys 85% stake in pensions fintech Cushon”

OK, this might not sound like a big deal, but it is, I think, the thin end of yet another wedge. Not so many years ago, when the banking dinosaurs ruled the earth, they bought life insurance companies, fund managers and even estate agents…