I’m grateful to Jane Foley for highlighting the need for Government to get on with sorting the “pre-97 pensioners” who still don’t get increases. Patrick Hosking does a good job of highlighting the need to put pressure on rogue schemes who are making the PPF look generous.

The link between what Aberdeen and Stagecoach are doing and what the list of rogues that ends Patrick Hosking’s article aren’t is about paying better increases on pensions.

Most of us when buying an annuity will go for the biggest income today and find ourselves like Jane and Terry Monk, with a pittance in 30 years time.

But the story for Stagecoach pensioners is quite different. They’re guaranteed income from their pension fund as a defined benefit and what they’re offered under the rules of the scheme but on top of that, they will get 2/3 of what Aberdeen can make from investments working with the Stagecoach Trustees. This is more than CDC and more than a level annuity, this is a damned good deal for Stagecoach pensioners. Hosking is a known sceptic but he’s convinced that Stagecoach and Aberdeen have come up with a “watertight” deal.

This is Patrick Hosking’s conclusion from the article which you can read (if you subscribe) here.

Hosking is calling on the Pensions Regulator to call out its support for the deal and I join him in that

To bring the two stories together , let’s remember it’s time the  TPR made it clear that it it’s the fiduciary duty of trustees who have a surplus and are not paying increases to a proportion of their members, to do so.

This article elegantly brings together two of the pension stories of this Christmas season – calling the Santa and Scrooge to pensioners.