Dear listener

If you want thought leadership then I’m your man. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure what ‘thought leadership’ was when I was asked to give some to a group of 40 or so top pensions industry people. About half ran big schemes for employers and the other half liaised between the schemes and the insurers who provide them. And when I was told that the title of my thought leadership – which I rapidly worked out was actually a talk (not a speech, you need at least 100 listening for it be a speech) – was ‘Restoring Faith in Pensions’ my first thought (led or not) was ‘Have we ever had faith in pensions?’

Anyway I told them to ban commission (the FSA says it will do that by 2012-ish), cut charges (many of them already had for the big schemes they were involved with), offer safer investment strategies (because who wants to find their nest egg has been eaten by a hungry bear market?), and not to cut their company schemes when the new Personal Accounts (workplace pensions for everyone) begin in 2012-ish-ish-ish. And I gave them some surprising arithmetic about the effect of means-testing on the value of that pension. How far their thoughts were led was not completely clear. But it was, the host said, ‘challenging and controversial’. So that’s all right then. You can read the whole thing here

---25 September 2009: Government wins two year court battle to allow employers to sack people at the age of 65 despite rules introduced in October 2006 to end discrimination on grounds of age.

---1 October 2009: Government announces that from April 2010 its entire workforce of 490,000 civil servants will be exempt from the rule the Government has fought to defend and will no longer have to retire at 65.

Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service, said “We should not put an artificial and unnecessary cap on the contribution of long serving, dedicated staff – at any grade.” Quite. So why one rule for the civil service and another for the rest of us?

AND IN (STILL) THE BEST RADIO PROGRAMME THIS WEEK….

We had such a huge response to our piece last week on the charges levied by pension funds that we are returning to it. When you agree to pay a higher annual charge for a greater ‘opportunity for growth’ is it value for money? Or are the expensive funds as likely to bomb as the cheap ones? The Investment Management Association responds to some exclusive Money Box figures.

Two hundred and eighty one pennies weigh a kilogram. Enough to tear through pockets and burst open purses. So what do you do with all that pesky change? You can put it in a counting machine and get a voucher in exchange. But at what cost? Or can you take a £5 bag of pence and twopences and bang it down to pay part of your supermarket bill? And what will your bank say if you come in laden with bags of coppers? We sort out the options.

Card stolen. Card used. Thousands of pounds gone. Bank says it’s your fault because the thieves knew the PIN. You deny writing it down. Stalemate. Just what are the rights and responsibilities on each side?

And that forgotten plastic asleep and unused in the back of the drawer could soon wake up and cost you money. Another card provider starts charging for dormant cards.

The number of stories can go down as well as up. Find out what is in and out by tuning in to Radio 4 Saturday at noon). The repeat is Sunday at 9pm – and 24/7 on the website. Or subscribe to the podcast on bbc.co.uk/moneybox where you can also read stuff, watch stuff, follow up stuff, download stuff, and send us stuff.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS Don’t forget the programme taster on BBC Breakfast between quarter to nine and nine o’clock.

e-mail Paul Lewis