HSBC chief highlights the problem of retirement poverty
Stephen Green, the chairman of HSBC, has today stepped forward to suggest that the UK pension industry is on the edge of a precipice. He has highlighted the "perfect storm" which has seen investment returns declining and a significant reduction in pension contributions when in perfect world these should be increasing. At the end of the day many of those approaching retirement age in the next decade will see their pension pots severely impacted by the events of the last 12 months and could be plunged into retirement poverty.
This is just the latest in a long line of negative comments and negative headlines with regards to the UK pension industry which has also seen the demise of final salary schemes, annuity rates under pressure and more and more pensioners struggling to survive on their pension funds alone. The situation is almost certain to get worse over the next couple of years with many pension funds having been decimated by the events of the last 12 months with little assistance forthcoming from the UK government.
All in all we have seen taxation receipts from pension fund income and pension fund assets increase over the last decade, creating a potential time-bomb which could go off over the next decade.
Share this..
Related stories
U.K.'s ageing population places more pressure on the public purse
The revelation that the UK population has now topped 60 million places yet more pressure on the public purse with an increase in benefit payments, pension arrangements and other social security benefits. While there is no doubt there will also be a significant increase in tax income in due course, the confirmation that there are now over 1.8 million people in the UK over 80 years of age is causing...
Read MoreIs Your Final Salary Pension Scheme Secure?
As the number of firms taking new entrants to their final salary pension schemes continues to diminish there are concerns that even those with a place in existing final salary pension schemes may not be as secure as they first thought. While the pension fund operations of a company and the day to day finances of business are ring fenced to offer some degree of protection, there are a number of sc...
Read MoreAverage house prices continue to rise
The average house in England and Wales is now worth about £166,798 which is a 6.7% increase over last 12 months. While this is an impressive increase in house prices over the period there is no doubt that pressure is starting to tell on the UK property sector. Over the last few weeks we have seen would-be buyers retreating to the sidelines hoping to catch more value on the way down as more seller...
Read MoreUK mortgage approvals rising again
It has been revealed that mortgage approvals in the UK reached a two-year high in November amid signs that interest in the property market is starting to reappear again. The figure of just under 45,000 new approvals is over 150% higher than the same time last year, a time which turned out to be the bottom of the UK property market. So where do we go from here? While some analysts are focusing o...
Read MoreBrits gamble with future finance
The majority of British people have no financial plans for the future, with only one in ten having a detailed plan for financing their lives in years to come, a new study has shown.According to National Savings & Investments' Quarterly Savings Survey, 55 per cent of people have no savings plan in place, while a further 32 per cent only have some vague ideas about financing their future or say thei...
Read More