A digital Brexit will spur us to rethink the nature of the state November 2, 2017 As Brexit negotiations continue, with the EU playing for time and the UK insisting that talks move onto the future relationship, the uncertainty can be unsettling for even the most experienced of commentators. However, this uncertainty should not stop us thinking about how we can transform the UK to meet future challenges after we leave [...]
Stop denigrating work – it’s the best route out of poverty July 25, 2017 Most people in poverty in the UK are white. According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report on UK poverty published in March, a whopping 81 per cent of those individuals in households with income of less than 60 per cent of the national median are white. Individuals of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, [...]
Nest, the government’s workplace pension scheme, won’t break even until 2026 April 25, 2017 A spotlight was shone on the snowballing costs of the government’s workplace pension scheme today, after a senior civil servant warned it will not break even until almost two decades after it was formed. In a letter to Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier, Robert Devereux, the permanent secretary to the Department for Work and [...]
The government has given “categorical assurance” that blockchain technology will not be used to monitor benefit claimants after trial with Govcoin, Barclays and Npower | City A.M. March 27, 2017 Lord Henley, parliamentary under-secretary for the department of work and pensions (DWP), has given “categorical assurance” that blockchain technology will not be used to monitor or control those claiming benefits after a small scale trial of the technology for making payments. “The department of work and pensions has absolutely no access to any claimant information [...]
With possible changes to the way that some defined benefit pensions are indexed against inflation, there may never be a better time to cash yours in February 22, 2017 Your gold-plated final salary pension may lose some of its shine, if the ideas put forward in a new government consultation come to fruition. In a green paper on the future of defined benefit (DB) pensions, published on Monday, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) discusses the option of allowing pension scheme trustees the freedom [...]
Just when it was all going so well, the pensions levy might be about to ruin the auto enrolment party January 18, 2017 Stop the clock: the DWP’s consultation on the pensions levy ended this morning. So far, so boring. Well – boring but important for things like fairness, competition and the state not interfering in the private sector or distorting markets… those sorts of mundane things. The situation: The Pensions Regulator collects a flat annual “pensions levy” per [...]
Authorities claim victory for pension savers but underline there’s still room for improvement December 13, 2016 Over a million Britons' retirement savings have been boosted by slashed pension charges, authorities revealed today. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and department for work and pensions (DWP) hailed the news as "significant progress" but still felt there was more work to be done in reducing costs levied on retirement savings. Read more: This business sector is [...]
Meet the 18 companies joining the FCA’s regulatory sandbox November 7, 2016 The UK's foward-thinking financial regulator has chosen 18 companies to participate in its so-called regulatory sandbox, where they will be able to test out new technologies without breaching rules. Launched over the summer, the sandbox is designed to foster fintech innovation while remaining under the supervisory eye of the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority. Read more: [...]
A government commissioned report unveils a series wide-ranging ideas for shaking-up the state pension October 13, 2016 The state pension age could be set to rise further after the former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry issued his provisional findings to the government. John Cridland today issued an interim report on the state pension age and although it fell short of making specific recommendations, the report gave a steer to the department for work and pensions (DWP) [...]
Govcoin’s co-founder Robert Kay explains why his firm is using blockchain to change the lives of benefit claimants October 10, 2016 "When you get into this technology, you can let your imagination run wild with it. But as an entrepreneur, you have to focus. You can use a new technology to help those that can pay the most for it, or those who will benefit the most from it. It is our view that distributed ledger [...]