Dear Listener

It’s been a week of pensions, pensions, pensions. The Pensions Bill finally got through the House of Commons and, barring any extraordinary mishap, will be law shortly. It sets out the revised timetable to raise state pension age to 66. No woman will now have to wait more than 18 months longer than she was expecting, no man longer than 12 months extra. You can see the full timetable by birth-date on my website www.paullewis.co.uk/statepensionage/SPA_intro.htm, as well as dates for winter fuel payment and a history of state pension age from 1909.

In just under one year millions of people in work will begin to be enrolled in a work based pension scheme. Auto-enrolment, as it is called, is due to begin next October for the biggest companies – more than 3 million employees will be in the first stage – and the rest will follow by 2016. This week the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions Iain Duncan Smith re-affirmed his faith in the scheme, despite some suggestions it might be delayed because of economic problems. He told Parliament on Tuesday

“Auto-enrolment is good for the country, good for people who save and, ultimately, good for growth because it puts the economy on a firm footing, based on savings. I stand here today categorically prepared to take on anybody on that basis, and I will continue to do so” (Hansard 18/10/11 col 853)

In the same debate Pensions Minister Steve Webb said, slightly delphically, “2012 will definitely happen next year. In other words, we do not believe that this important programme should be delayed.” (Hansard 18/10/11 col 835)

Auto-enrolment was one topic that came up in Question Time, which I chaired at the National Association of Pension Funds annual conference in Manchester on Wednesday. Start planning now was the message, even if you are a small employer who won’t have to enrol your employees until 2016. Other concerns included the effectiveness of the ABI’s new rules on annuity choice, the role of financial education, and how to make pensions more interesting. More interesting? That was a concept that many of the pensions specialists in the hall found hard to grasp! What could be more interesting than pensions? I agreed.

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

Should benefits rise by the 5.2% rate of inflation next April when wages are rising by an average (excluding bonuses) of just 1.8%? That question was posed in at least one newspaper this week. One MP who though the answer was “no they shouldn’t” will debate the issue with the boss of Child Poverty Action Group who is unequivocally in the ‘yes’ camp.

Your mobile phone is lost or stolen. Who is liable for the calls made after it leaves your possession? ‘You’ is the answer and many people say liability should be limited.

Past performance is no guide to the future – that is the official line on predicting which find managers can do well with your investments. But one retired sailor claims that the very short-term past is a guide to the very short-term future and, if you take care to select only the best performing unit trusts in each sector and move your funds regularly, you can make money ahead of the markets. We have a live debate between him and a critic.

And Saturday is definitely Groundhog Day as HM Revenue & Customs again confesses that it took the wrong amount of tax off seven million people last year. Too much from about six million who will get a refund and not enough off around a million who will get a demand. We ask an accountant – who? what? and, most of all, why oh why oh why?

One story has already been dropped (it may appear next week) but others are still jumping up and down saying ‘me too, me too’ or even ‘me instead’. We may resist or we may give in. Find out what Friday (aka the Producer) decides by listening to Money Box on Radio 4 Saturday at midday or the repeat at 9pm on Sunday or of course online anytime www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox.

There is more information on all these stories on our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox and you can download transcripts, as well as send us stories or ideas you want us to look into. And why not Have Your Say on benefits and inflation?

This newsletter is available at bbc.co.uk/moneybox/newsletter around the time it hits your inbox (tell your friends who don’t subscribe). And you could join more than 12,800 people who follow me on Twitter to enjoy (or rant about) my random but timely thoughts on money and a few other things whenever I’m awake at twitter.com/paullewismoney.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS I will be on BBC One Breakfast on Saturday with a story about a man who spends nearly a quarter of his very low income on keeping warm. I will be back on Breakfast later in the week, probably on Thursday and usually around 0640 and 0820 talking about a money story and answering emails and tweets. But the time, and occasionally the day, can vary.

e-mail Paul Lewis