“UK will have to raise retirement age after election, minister says”

May 11, 2023 | Pensions

The not-so-good good news is that the planned rise in the state pension retirement age is on hold because life expectancy in the UK has fallen. Not the way we want to stand out from the crowd, as we’re about the only country in the ‘developed world’ which won’t have to pay pensions for as long as previously expected. However, if you’re of an age when retirement seems a distant dream or nightmare, it will, I’m afraid, become ever more distant, as the finish line will keep moving; it’s just being left to the next minister to do it after the next election. It’s easy to dismiss if you’re healthy and happy to continue to work. Many, alas aren’t, don’t and have and will have few options other than the state pension.

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“Annuity rates soar to 14-year high”

“Annuity rates soar to 14-year high”

I was asked this week whether annuities are now ‘a good investment’. They’ve been recommended very rarely in recent years, since ‘pension freedoms’ allowed pretty much unlimited drawdown on pension funds and anything left to be passed on to beneficiaries free of Inheritance Tax.

“Pension fund crisis as gilt yields climb”

“Pension fund crisis as gilt yields climb”

What? Why? With apologies to any investment professionals reading this (if you are, I’m flattered), here it is in a nutshell. To borrow money, the government issues bits of paper (gilts) which say ‘lend us £100, we’ll pay you 1% a year for 20 years and then pay you back’.