John Roe , coffee and fund management – I share his views

Posted on January 26, 2026 by henry tapper

Value for money? I think we have the same thoughts – John Roe.

Sorry to use an Aldi packet – it doesn’t quite make the grade for the best breed of coffee drinkers , but this is what I’m drinking today!

Main factors to be considered by Tapper-Eastwood purchasing team

  1. Price – for comparables – Aldi is cheapest
  2. Information – this is from Columbia and it is smooth, tastes of caramel and is dark.
  3. Strength – it is strength 3 out of 8 (I think)

I agree with you , this is not telling me what kind of caffeine buzz I get – it should. Going back to drug-using student days I had much the same problem and for much of the time in between I used Red Bull.

Now on to the pension comparison. I know a lot about what you do as you have managed my money; I think I made a good decision f and you have invested in my company – AgeWage – which I am endeavouring to make a good decision so I can have a long and easy retirement.

Whether it be coffee or fund management I want to know what I’m buying , what it is aiming to do and what it’s costing me!

On that last point, I save a fortune by drinking my coffee at home and buying through Aldi, I suspect I feel the same way about fund management – except I can substitute workplace for home!

John Roe

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Tom McPhail gives good advice to those who want a rich retirement

Posted on January 26, 2026 by henry tapper
author-image

Don’t trust the state if you want a rich retirement

Research your options, pay for advice and prepare well for later life

Tom McPhail
The Times

What do you want from your pension when you come to start drawing on it? This is not a simple question. I’m not talking here about guaranteed defined benefit pensions. such as final salary schemes, but the defined contribution “pots of money” pensions on which many of us increasingly have to rely.

At retirement a host of variables can have a bearing on what you might choose to do with your savings. These include your health, your attitude to investment risk, your home ownership status, your non-pension savings, whether you’re stopping work abruptly or going part-time, your marital situation and those same factors for your partner, and so on. Recent changes to pension death taxes have further complicated the picture.

You could just take all your pension out in cash, although you may pay quite a lot of unnecessary tax if you do; you could use it to buy an annuity; or you could keep the money invested in your pension and draw down a regular income. You could, as many people do, use a combination of all three. Everyone needs to decide what is going to work best for them.

This challenge is in sharp contrast to the situation at the start of your working life, when a one-size-fits-all approach can work quite well. The auto-enrolment scheme can get millions into pensions, but it can’t get them out.

Before 2015 most of those approaching retirement had to use their pot to buy an annuity, which had the merit of simplicity but also meant shockingly poor value for money for millions of savers. George Osborne ripped up those rules in his budget of 2014.

He gave us freedom to choose how to use our own money but also left many struggling to decide what to do. Whatever choices you make require trade-offs against the uncertainties of how long you will live, future investment returns and increases in the cost of living.

Now the government has decided that this is all a bit too complicated for us to deal with. We already have a retirement guidance service called Pension Wise, which is free to use (funded by a levy on all pension savers) but apparently this isn’t enough. Under new legislation on its way through parliament, pension schemes will be required to set up a default retirement policy. This means that within a couple of years, if you don’t make an active choice over how to draw on your pension savings, your pension scheme will be obliged to make it for you and start paying you an income.

This is a terrible idea. Your pension scheme can only guess at a solution for you. Without information about all those personal variables affecting your circumstances, it can only deliver a homogenous “least worst” answer. It will be designed to minimise the risk of causing you any financial harm, or incurring the pension scheme any legal liabilities.

This is a failure of financial regulation. For ten years now, financial firms have been trying to guide customers through the retirement decision-making process. They have been hamstrung by the stifling hand of regulators that have been far more concerned with preventing a few bad outcomes, than facilitating many good ones.

My advice is, don’t leave it to chance, take the time to research your options at least a few years before you expect to draw on your pensions. Pay for advice if you think you need to, it will almost certainly be worth it; there are also some good guided planning tools out there, in spite of the best efforts of the regulators.

Tom McPhail is a pensions commentator with 20 years’ experience across the industry

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Revival of pension investment as pension buyout deals slow.

Posted on January 26, 2026 by henry tapper

The FT kick off the week reporting something that you’ve been reading on this blog and in the pension trade press, the flow of pensions to insurance annuities is slowing as the size of buy-ins and buy-outs slows. Thanks Mary McDougall and Lee Harris for this; (free link for early birds).

The FT make the slowdown political and indeed a section of the Pension Schemes Bill (debated last week in the House of Lords) will make it easier for sponsors of DB schemes for pensioners in the private sector to get at surpluses.

Insurers bought up about £40bn of assets through pension “buyout” deals completed last year, according to preliminary estimates from consultancies LCP and Mercer, down from £48bn in 2024 and £49bn in 2023.

The FT report results from Just and Aviva. both of whom are below expectations. Big deals such as Ford’s £4.6bn buy-in with L&G are few and far between.

FT reports the increasing ownership of American private equity houses in what were UK insurers. These include PIC, Just and Utmost, all of which have found the capital needed to do the trades abroad, often reverting to funded reinsurance in Bermuda.

While the insurers say guns are lined up for a demolition of investment in DB schemes in 2026, we heard them say much the same in previous years and despite DB schemes being in a financial position to sell up, the FT report a different mood

But some trustees are now rethinking whether to sell their defined-benefit schemes, considering whether they can instead retain them and share more surplus assets with members and their employers.

What has not happened as we might have expected back in 2018 when a Conservative Government announced Superfunds is deals with superfunds. What we have got by way of superfund so far is the “bridge to buy-out” model pioneered by Clara. Whether this is considered a clean break with insurance is doubtful.

So far the only financial transaction that has happened to ensure the future of DB pensions in “run-on” has been the Aberdeen/Stagecoach Pension Scheme transfer.

Companies are also looking closely at a deal made by Stagecoach with Aberdeen last year where the asset manager took over as the “sponsoring employer” of the bus company’s scheme, with the aim of growing the surplus and sharing it with members of the pension scheme.

That is not to say that large companies are not renewing their conviction to run on pension schemes that many thought were in the past. With the new conviction that pensions can be a source of capital for sponsors is an increasing feeling that pensions can be deferred pay for staff and not just those in DB. There are many companies, larger and smaller, looking at the failure of the private pension sector to deliver pensions this century.

For them the DB era where pensions are guaranteed is not returnable to for future accrual. But CDC represents a type of pension at a fixed cost to employers that many are looking at as a replacement to the pensions they gave up when DB schemes closed.

I am pleased that FTs insurance and pension reporters are writing an article together that questions what a couple of years back was taken as fact; annuities are no longer being seen as the gold-plated solution for sponsors and members of private sector DB plans.

This blog has been saying for some time that when Britain decides to grow its economy again, the revival of pensions will be very evident.

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Pensions, politics and football

Posted on January 26, 2026 by henry tapper

Maybe in other countries ….

The weekend was a battle between the north west and the south east in politics and football and I’m pleased to report no battling in pensions.

Well done Bournemouth , well done my actuarial friend from Southbourne who put some cash on Bournemouth and Boscombe to win at 90 minutes (9-1 win with the last kick made it 3-2 to Boscombe.

Well done Manchester United for doing the same and winning 3-2 in north London’s Emirate Statement.

I suspect the football analogy for politics was that the Labour parliamentary party in London won 8-1 its fight against Andy Burnham who stays manager in Manchester . We await a home repeat where Manchester’s manager will get the footballing equivalent of management of the national team, but that will be some time off.

What can I say about pensions? Well my Manchester pension friends are split red and blue in football and I have friends supporting Arsenal and Bournemouth. My top pension politician is yet to declare her hand!

A downtrodden red , at last she can cheer on Man Utd. As the instigator of the Royal Mail CDC revival, she is something of a hero to me – though she’s out of pension politics. She’s the Social Democratic Party and she must have had a fun week with politics.

As you can see, we have a few things in common. I wish her well!

Indeed I wish the kind of football her side under a manager who looks at home in Old Trafford are playing – well. I have time for Arsenal and Liverpool who had a rubbish weekend and I ask you to pity me for getting some of the way to Woking to watch Yeovil Town have its match called off.

Has pensions got anything to worry about politics. I hope not. Hilary Salt’s Royal Mail CDC is not quite the CDC that’s emerging for multi-employer in an actuarial sense but in terms of what it does for ordinary people it is quite the same. CDC is an uplift in value for our pension money in terms of income in retirement.

We cannot hear a distant rumble against CDC pensions from Reform – though Reform thinks it can have a go at LGPS wastefulness. The Conservative party aren’t making much noise against the Pension Schemes Bill (except for fear of mandation in investment). The senior remaining pension politician in parliament is Ros Altmann and she is close enough to Bryn Davies , Sharon Bowles and Baroness Sherlock for me to say that there is no acrimony in pensions.

Whether there is any trouble in the Treasury for Reeves I doubt, there doesn’t seem to be any acrimony against our Torsten Bell in either DWP or Treasury (I hear nothing). Sensibly these politicians aren’t waving around football scarves (Starmer wears an Arsenal scarf and look at the problems that brings!).

Ros Altmann supports Tottenham but she represents a section of the population that I’m very fond of, (and who are better at most things than football).

So we kick off another good week. I am excited enough about pensions to be chairing another CDC session on Tuesday at 10.30 am. The link is below.

I am full of vigour having chatted over the weekend with my old friend Kim Gubler who’s Podcast with Nico and Darren can be accessed here.  We are only a couple of weeks from Valentines and we have Ronnie and Claire to ring that in.

Ronnie and Claire

My hope is that we see the Pension Schemes Bill inch towards being a Pension Schemes Act and that we can look to 2027 for proper pensions instead of DC pension freedoms, for those who can’t bet their head around freedoms. I hope that we get the UMES CDC consultation completed and movement on the regulation of multi-employer whole of life CDC in time for launch at the end of July.

I hope that our Pension Minister is thinking about what he’ll be saying at Edinburgh’s Investment Conference (top of the Scottish football league and pensions league!).

CDC – should we stay or should we go?

https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/37687312973044?p=b3sV9Nu29vHzXF2AfR

10.30 am Tuesday; see you from this link and post the URL into your diary.

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An amorous podcast with Kim Gubler’s Ronnie and Claire

Posted on January 25, 2026 by henry tapper

Kim Gubler

It is rather fun to have Kim Gubler on Darren and Nico’s podcast this week. Kim Gubler Consultants has sold itself to IGG in a deal which Kim says ensures its independence but gives itself access to IGG’s private equity squillions. Having known Andrew Bradshaw a few years I’d like to congratulate Kim and associates.

The stand out star of this podcast is the one legged pigeon known as Ronnie, who – being of a certain age – has fallen in love with Claire the lady pigeon and is seen on the podcast (matching keeping your independence to IGG).

The stand out discussion point is the discussion of value for money, at least as it is developing as a response to the FCA/TPR proposal. The lads and the lady are of the opinion that leaving it up to DC schemes to provide employers let alone with members with information about the performance of their pension plans (and whether that is valuable relative to what can be got elsewhere ) is going to be ready around 2050.

Commendably, Kim points out that if they bypassed the actuarial mysteries and simply used the data that schemes carry on money in (when and how much) and money out (value at the day of of analysis) we could have a consistent system of evaluation that could be available today. This line would have worked had she not mentioned that it is the system that has been delivered by Henry Tapper’s AgeWage.

It has been 140 sessions that I last appeared on this podcast and I don’t see myself appearing on the pod much before 2050.

But back to Kim Gubler and what is a really most excellent 72 minutes.

Kim and I have had many happy trips to horsey events and I started working with her when she led the Bacon & Woodrow DC research team in the early years of the century. She has a collection of acronyms that she had directed but I think PASA, Smart Master Trust and the are her current priorities.

She points out that the small pots program which has spent a decade going nowhere has been given new momentum by her work with Maurice Tetley.

It’s great to hear Kim, determined to get back to work at the end of this splendid session. I can’t remember 72 minutes worth of this podcast which has been so dedicated to the subject it is about. As I finished my listening, I had a variety of birds waiting out on our patio feeders including a woodpecker , a bird after which Kim’s offices are named. I am sure they had been attracted to my feeders by the story of Ronnie and Claire.

Ronnie and Claire?

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How much indexation should we have in DC (including CDC)?

Posted on January 25, 2026 by henry tapper

One of the questions that buzzes in my little brain is just how much indexation I am getting on my pension.

I get a pension from Eagle Star (now Zurich) which pays income that increases by CPI up to 5%.

I get a pension from my AVCs which is level (it had to be as it was guaranteed to convert from my pot at a level conversion rate.

I will have a state pension from November 2028 increasing by the triple rate  (till then and after then so long as the Government maintains it).

When I get to November 11th 2028 I will get my pension and a reduction in my Eagle Star staff pension because some of it is a bridge to my state pension.

Then I have two pots, one (smaller ) pot which, unless I interfere, convert to a default pension and pay out from my chosen retirement age (later as this is my workplace pension and I want it to take my savings so long as I work.

Then I have a larger pot with Legal & General pot which will pay out when I choose it too, but if I make no claim on it, it will pay me an income from 65 (the age my workplace pension provider chose for me in 2010). The Nest and L&G DC pots will pay something like a pension. Nest have said it will index income at CPI, L&G have not made a statement but the assumption from the Pension Schemes Bill is that the retirement income will last for a lifetime and I expect that this will mean being maintained in real terms.

So only income from my Eagle Star annuity is not broadly in line with inflation proofed and I am comfortable that if the money in my pots provides me with either a DC or CDC income, I will get protection. At a high level I am not concerned  that I will run out of income or that my income will reduce in real terms.

I don

I asked a friend who knows about these things what he would want if he was in my position, here is what he wrote me.

I don’t like CDC targeting CPI and even more not CPI+1%.  I like CPI-1%.

I asked him about the State Pension as this is the source of income for most of us

1. SP rises by earnings (forgetting the triple lock).  So low to middle earners with private pension up to the SP level will have close to CPI overall (give or take).

I asked about fairness; will those on low incomes with short life expectancy get value from DC and CDC income,

2. It is fairer.  It front loads decumulation, a little, relative to CPI-1%. So gives the shorter lives a bit more.  Generally the longer lives will be better off so can stand the slightly higher risk of actual pension cuts .

I said to my friend I knew that he’d been involved in the making of state and private pension policy. including the requirements to offer real pensions (inflation linked).

I always preferred CPI-1% than the caps we introduced, which hit people most when support is most needed.  Never got my way.

This will be a topic of our discussion on Tuesday (27th January) when we will be working out whether to go for whole of life CDC or wait for Retirement CDC. Of course the rules say that CDC should target CPI (not CPI – 1%) . That means a more cautious approach with lower pensions to make sure index linked increases can be met. There will be plenty of money to pay increases and not the same stretch to meet the basic promise. Sounds familiar?

If you are free at 10.30 am , you should join us . Over 50 people attended our last CDC event. We will be challenging as we were on fairness , this time we’ll be looking not just at high initial pensions or high promises of income, but also on whether to run CDC as whole of life or just for decumulation.

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/37687312973044?p=b3sV9Nu29vHzXF2AfR

See you there.

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Pancho and Lefty – a song for those thinking about Davos.

Posted on January 25, 2026 by henry tapper

I got this comment on yesterday’s blog about what’s going on in America. I didn’t get the reference to Pancho and Lefty, it’s a backstory of how Pancho and Lefty died in very different ways

Here’s the comment – it’s from Derek Scott and it’s about how easy it is for us to make judgements.  Nobody can make a proper judgement on Pancho and Lefty.

“… The desert’s quiet, Cleveland’s cold
And so the story ends we’re told …”

But for the avoidance of doubt, Jack Towarnicky (who maybe lives in Powell OH rather than in Cleveland) would be welcome to dinner here in St Andrews, where nearly 40% of our students and academics are American.

British media coverage of US politics does not uniformly favour one party, but generally a large portion of the British press portrays the Republican party—particularly under presidents like Donald Trump—less favourably than the Democratic party.

More evidence of cognitive (“cold”) bias?

I admit to such bias and listening to the song that Derrick Scott’s reference to Pancho and Lefty.  I now realise there are no simple answers to some stories. For Pancho and Lefty think Carney and Trump – or at least think about your reactions to what you saw in Davos.

Pancho and Lefty

Written by Townes Van Zandt, who first released the song on his 1972 album, The Late Great Townes Van Zandt. In a paradoxical backstory that is typical of Townes’ expository style. It was covered by Emmylou Harris  and then Willie Nelson.

This is its great cover by Emmylou, passed me by my friend Derrick Scott who made that comment and  reminds me what Willie Nelson once said:

“There are two kinds of men. Those who are in love with Emmylou Harris, and those who haven’t met her.”

Here’s the song that has got many people talking of Pancho and Lefty as a song to listen to and then listen to Mark Carney’s speech in Davos last week.

The story in the song

Pancho is introduced first and Lefty next. Pancho went to Mexico to be a bandit and met Lefty who betrayed him to the Federales in return for a chance to live in Cleveland (where Jack is living).

I hope we can all listen to this song and get some thought of the lives and deaths of Pancho and Lefty.

The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
And where he got the bread to go
Ain’t nobody knows

Many think that Pancho and Lefty are the same person , there’s no certainty what happened, a bit like what’s happening to Trump and Carney.

The lyrics  of Pancho and Lefty are here

Living on the road, my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath’s as hard as kerosene
You weren’t your mama’s only boy
But her favorite one, it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit, boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
But Pancho met his match, you know
In the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That’s the way it goes

And all the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness, I suppose

And Lefty, he can’t sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty’s mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
And where he got the bread to go
Ain’t nobody knows

The poets tell how Pancho fell,
And Lefty’s living in cheap hotels
The desert’s quiet, Cleveland’s cold,
And so the story ends we’re told.
Pancho needs your prayers it’s true,
But save a few for Lefty too.
He only did what he had to do,
And now he’s growing old.

A few gray Federales say
We could have had him any day
We only let him go so long
Out of kindness, I suppose.

Emmylou Harris

Here is Mark Carney’s 15 minute speech at Davos

Pancho and Lefty play it out in Mexico and Trump and Carney play it out in Davos. But we watch and wonder what this means for America.

I think that Emmylou Harris who is 79 and playing a string of farewell gigs in Europe (including several in Britain); she should be playing Pancho and Lefty.

Emmylou Harris setlist at Emirates Arena, Glasgow, on Jan 16

1. My Songbird
2. Here I Am
3. Orphan Girl
4. Love and Happiness
5. Two More Bottles of Wine
6. Red Dirt Girl
7. Gulf Coast Highway
8. Green Pastures
9. Get Up John
10. Help Him, Jesus
11. Born to Run
12. Prayer in Open D
13. Bright Morning Stars
14. Goodbye
15. One of These Days
16. Pancho and Lefty
17. All the Roadrunning
18. Michelangelo
19. Wheels
20. Luxury Liner
21. Together Again
22. Rose of Cimarron
23. Boulder to Birmingham
24. You Never Can Tell (C’est La Vie)

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Let’s socialise at ours and put money by for later! “Friendflation” is a con!

Posted on January 25, 2026 by henry tapper

I am quite in agreement with Standard Life and their wish to have us defer more of our pay for later years when we are less fit to work.

But I challenge “friendflation” for what it assumes. “expensive nights out (32%), eating out (29%) and drinks (25%) topping the list”.

My memory of back when I was young was that people came round to mine and I went round to theirs and we ate in and did things that cost us very little but were a lot of fun.

The pinch of “friendflation” does not need be so sharp, it can be more a stroke, if you take the lead and start organising friends to come round.

See what you think – here is the article that first appeared in IFA 

I must invite Mike Ambery round to my place , it’s only a few hundred houses from his offices in the Old Bailey!

Feeling the pinch of ‘friendflation’ this January? Halving your socialising spend could add £173k to your retirement pot

Chloe Gronow
Unsplash - Money, Piggy Bank, Savings, Pension

After the festive season splurge, January often brings a financial reality check. With many feeling the pinch and setting fresh resolutions, Standard Life analysis reveals that cutting back on costly socialising could do more than ease short-term strain – it could transform your long-term financial future by adding six figures to your retirement pot.

The term ‘friendflation’ is gaining traction as socialising costs soar, from dinners out and nights on the town to stag and hen dos and holidays with friends. New research1 from Standard Life reveals UK adults are spending an average of £375 per month on socialising, with one in six (16%) spending more money on socialising than a year ago.

While social interaction is vital for wellbeing, the financial hangover can be real. Nearly half of UK adults (46%) say they’ve regretted money spent on socialising, with expensive nights out (32%), eating out (29%) and drinks (25%) topping the list. It all adds up – a third (31%) of UK adults say that their social spending is holding them back from saving for the future.

The impact of redirecting social spend

Standard Life’s analysis2 finds that someone who began working full-time, with a salary of £25,000 a year and paid the minimum monthly auto-enrolment contributions from the age of 22, could have a total retirement fund of £210,000 by the age of 68, allowing for 2% inflation over the period. However, if someone halved their yearly socialising spend, and was able to direct this saving (£2,250) into their pension over the course of their career, they could have a final pension pot of £383,000 by the time they reach retirement – an increase of £173,000. This account allows for 2% inflation, both in the overall pension savings and the yearly socialising cost.

Total retirement fund at age of 68*
No additional contribution, saving from age 22 Redirecting 10% of socialising spend (£450) into your pension, annually from age 22 – 68 Redirecting 20% of socialising spend (£900) into your pension, annually from age 22 – 68 Redirecting 30% of socialising spend (£1350) into your pension, annually from age 22 – 68 Redirecting 40% of socialising spend (£1800) into your pension, annually from age 22 – 68 Redirecting half of socialising spend (£2250) into your pension, annually from age 22 – 68
£210,000 £244,000 £279,000 £314,000 £349,000 £383,000
+£34,000 +£69,000 +£104,000 +£139,000 +£173,000

*assuming 3.50% salary growth per year, and 5% a year investment growth. Figures allow for 2% inflation. Annual Management Charge of 0.75% assumed. The figures are an illustration and are not guaranteed. Earning limits not applied.

Meanwhile, the analysis shows that even those who choose to redirect smaller amounts of their socialising spend into their pension could see a significant difference in retirement. For example, putting just 10% of the £4500 yearly socialising spend (£400) into pension savings over the course of a career could result in a final pension pot of £244,000 – a boost £34,000 in retirement. Increasing this to 30% of the socialising spend (£1350) could add £104,000 more to the pension pot by the time you retire (£314,000).

Mike Ambery, Retirement Savings Director at Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group commented:

 “January is often when people take stock and set new goals, so it’s a great time to think about balance. Spending time with friends is one of life’s great joys, and it’s not something people should feel pressured to give up. But as our research shows, many people do looks back and regret certain socialising costs – whether it’s an overpriced dinner or a night out that didn’t feel worth it.

Mike’s right, let’s socialise at ours!

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How do old people manage pension self assessment without actuaries and lawyers?

Posted on January 25, 2026 by henry tapper

I started this morning with a a simple tale of a senior lawyer finding his father’s pensions laid out before him

It being self assessment time, it was good to see how simple pension affairs could be for those of yester year.

But we’ve moved on – how do we do it today?

If I was comforted by this , it wasn’t for long, for the next post was former DWP actuary and GAD supremo Andy Young who hinted that things weren’t quite that easy, he doesn’t sound unemployed to me.

He has , it appears, been following the rule-book on how he, a rather elderly first time pensioner (you can defer your pensions but not without tax consequences if appears).

His predicament (he is baffled by what state pension he should declare for tax assessment) is not just baffling for him.

Actually, none of these bright and experienced people is quite sure what assessment is done at source and what by adjustment through self-assessment. Which I find worrying.

Andrew and Peter T and Peter C all have different answers to the same question!

I find it even more worrying , to a point that I have to find it hilarious, that others are finding it just as hard. This is from a long email asking me for my thoughts (expletives sanitized),

I am doing my tax return for 2024-25.
When you log in my work pension is preloaded.  But not my state pension. Why the F*** is this?

I think 2024-25 was the first year I received my state pension. As I deferred. But I assume this is standard as the text on the forms say what to do.

So what is that?  They say

‘You can use the

“About the general increase in benefits” letter that the Pension Service sent you before the start of the 2024 to 2025 financial year.  Add up the amount you were entitled to receive from 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025 and put the total in this box. 

For tax purposes, the correct amount is always the figure of weekly entitlement, not the number of payments you received, so this will be the first week at the old weekly pension  rate, plus 51 weeks at the new weekly pension rate’. 

Then a classic.

“Note. If you reached SPA before 6 April 2010 and 6 April 2024 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday, the amount should be calculated as 52 times the new rate.”

Then a para in case you didn’t get the state pension for the whole year or the amount changed.

And then.

“Add up your amounts carefully.”

(A bit ironic that after all the trouble I had getting my SP!).

What the F***

Can’t they do it?  How do older people do it?

There aren’t many things that are simple about pensions but I suspect that self assessment for those like me beyond a SERPS pension and taking my pension at my state pension age will be simpler.

But then of course there’s the triple lock to tip those whose only taxable income is from the state into taxation. That is one I hope we can get paid in a simplified way.

I ask you to scroll back up to the start of his pension and remember how pensions were originally designed. That pension was designed to last in a membership and pass book. A leather case, a steel popper and paper printed ready for signature!

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Investment companies should give be giving us better DC pensions

Posted on January 24, 2026 by henry tapper

Sharon Bowles

The Lords has been looking at the lot of DC pension investors, investors who could be invested in CDC before too long. We start with the most important amendment that is needed.

Investment companies (trusts) should be on the shopping list for any DC scheme (including CDC schemes) looking to improve pensions for members.

The argument in the Upper House on reform of how we are invested in our DC pensions

Here is the argument as put forward to fellow members of the Upper House. Baroness Altmann. I am amazed that we have not an amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill so that from 2027 when UMES CDC’s go live, we have an opportunity to invest in investment companies rather than plough contributions into the standard trackers which we are restricted to (by charge caps and regulation).

Baroness Maeve Sherlock presented the pensions schemes bill for its second reading in the House of Lords on Thursday (December 18).

Ahead of the reading, the Lords Delegated Powers committee published a report on the bill which claimed it had not given parliamentarians a sense of how delegated powers could work.

The paper, published on Wednesday (December 17), called the bill a “skeleton bill”.

Baroness Jane Ramsey, chair of the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform committee, said:

“The pension schemes bill is a very bare skeleton with little flesh for parliamentarians to get their teeth into.

“Pensions law is highly complex so there will always be need for secondary legislation in this area but the committee feel the government have not done enough in this bill to explain how they will use the powers they are asking parliament to approve.”

Presenting the bill in the House of Lords, Sherlock said the reforms outlined would make money invested in pensions work harder for investors.

However, she set out that some default arrangements for workplace pensions result in poor outcomes for members.

She said the bill introducing a power to make regulation for default arrangements could reduce fragmentation.

“At its core, this bill is about making sure that people’s hard earned savings work as hard for them as they have worked to save, while galvanising the untapped benefits that private pensions can offer the economy at large,”

added Sherlock.

Baroness Ros Altmann raised concerns with the bill and raised the exclusion of closed-ended funds, like investment trusts.

She said:

“I warmly welcome many of the bill’s provisions, but I do believe that some of the assumptions underlying these reforms could prove dangerously false, and there is a real risk.”

She warned there could be a lack of future innovation as smaller entrants could drop out of the market or not enter at all.

“I do have concerns that the bill will stop new competition coming in, stop new entrants coming in and an oligopoly is not normally the best way for a market to succeed.

“I am particularly puzzled also by the explicit exclusion of closed-ended listed companies within this bill.”

You can read Ros Altmann’s article on my blog on this subject in December of last year, by clicking here.

She continue to post questions on this matter

Former Chair of FCA Charles Randell asks the same question as the peers pose.

I look forward to hearing the fate of the  amendment to let investment trusts onto the shopping lists of our DC and CDC default funds.

Ros Altmann

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