A third of the UK population don’t know anything about the pension freedoms introduced by the Government in April 2015, according to the fifth UK Readiness Report from Aegon.
The freedoms, introduced by Chancellor George Osborne, have given people with defined contribution pensions new opportunities to access their pension savings and use this money in the way they choose from age 55. However, a significant proportion of the population remain unaware of the changes and even among those that recognise the term ‘pension freedoms’, many are unclear what it means.
A third of the 4,000 people surveyed in the research say they’ve heard about the freedoms, but admit to not understanding what the changes mean for their own retirement savings. This lack of awareness grows among the younger age groups with 40 per cent aged 25 to 34-years-old not having heard of pension freedoms.
Expats
Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive city for expats, leapfrogging Angolan capital Luanda in the annual chart compiled by consultancy firm Mercer.
The BBC reports that Luanda, which had consistently topped the list in recent years, fell in the ranking owing to the weakening of its local currency. Zurich and Singapore were third and fourth on the list, unchanged from a year ago. Tokyo rose to fifth. The survey is designed for companies to calculate expat workers’ allowances. Wedding costs The median cost of a UK wedding comes in at £8,000, according to research conducted on behalf of Ocean Finance. Unlike the average cost of a wedding, the median is not distorted by a small number of extremely expensive weddings and is regarded by some of a better reflection of what people are really paying out for their big day. However, with one in 10 Brits who tied the knot in the past five years forking out between £19,000 and £30,000, an £8,000 price tag was just a fantasy for some – 35 to 44-year-olds were most likely to spend more than £19,000. On the other hand, almost one quarter of financially savvy newlyweds said they managed scrimp their way to a wedding that cost £2,000 or less – just a quarter of the national median. EU ReferendumMore than 1,280 executives, including directors from 51 FTSE 100 companies, have signed a letter backing the UK’s membership of the EU.
The Remain camp said the letter to The Times showed ‘unprecedented’ support from across business and finance. Many signatories have already expressed support, but Remain said new names include Sir John Parker from Anglo American, and Barclays’ John McFarlane. Companies on the list employ 1.75 million people, Remain said. Meanwhile, Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, is pro-Remain. He told BBC 5 Live Breakfast: ‘The EU has brought us the single market, the single market has transformed the experience for many of Britain’s citizens, including the birth of low-fare air travel, cheap holidays abroad. Being in the single market brings enormous benefits and also protections for workers rights and human rights that didn’t exist while Britain was a small and failing democracy prior to 1973.’ Economy George Osborne’s attempts to put the public finances in order have suffered a sharp setback, with government borrowing higher than this time last year, The Times reports. The government borrowed £9.7 billion in May, according to the Office for National Statistics, £400 million lower than the same month last year and the best May for Treasury coffers since 2007. However, April’s borrowing figures were revised up by the ONS to £8.2 billion, rather than the £7.2 billion estimated a month ago. This meant that total borrowing for April and May was £150 million higher than for the same two months in 2015. Amazon Amazon is quietly rooting out many of its Chinese traders who do not hold UK VAT numbers to try to protect itself from tax evasion inquiries later this year when new HMRC powers come into force, The Guardian has learned. The online retailer has been conducting a review of sellers’ VAT compliance in the UK. It is understood to have contacted many Chinese sellers, giving them until the end of the month to provide their VAT numbers. Recent years have seen an explosion in small, overseas firms using Amazon and other sites to sell to online shoppers in the UK. Large numbers, including many from China, are not charging VAT. As a result, they have been able to reach the ‘bestseller’ rankings, dominating some of the most popular listings on Amazon. BHS The Guardian also reports that MPs have asked Lady Tina Green, Sir Philip Green’s wife, to explain the ‘very opaque web’ of family companies behind their retail empire. The parliamentary committee investigating the demise of BHS want her to reveal the offshore companies in which she or other family members are the ultimate controlling party.
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