e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.ukSELF RETIREMENT
People are working on average for about a year longer than they did six
years ago. And it’s a trend that has been going on for some time. For men the
age of what the statisticians call ‘withdrawal from the labour market’ has been
growing since the mid 1990s. Men who on average retired aged 63 then are now
working until close on 65. Women who left the labour market around 60 ½ on
average in the 1990s now work until they are well over 62.
And more people are carrying on working over pension age. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in 2012 a quarter of men aged 65-69 worked and so did about one in seven women. Over 70 the proportion falls to less than one in thirty women and about one in fifteen men.
Men who stay on at work after pension age tend to be in better paid professional jobs. But many women take lower paid work as cleaners or in administrative roles. And the Office for National Statistics found that almost a third (31.3%) of people working over state pension age – 65 for men and around 61½ for women at the moment – say they are self-employed compared with fewer than one in seven of those under pension age.
With pension age rising, age discrimination at work now illegal, and falling incomes from pensions the trend to working longer looks set to continue.
More information: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_297899.pdf
Scamwatch – each month we warn about the latest fraud
People desperate for work are being offered fake jobs which can result in financial ruin. The scam targets people who are looking for work – sometimes through online recruitment services. They get a call from someone who seems impressed with them and offers a job with a fine sounding title – perhaps a ‘finance officer’ for what sounds like fairly light work. It consists of accepting money into a personal bank account and passing it on to another bank account, minus commission. The scammers say by using a personal bank account the money can be moved the same day while if business accounts are used it could take up to seven days.
If this happens to you or a family member take care. Because this scam is in fact designed to get innocent people to launder money – cleaning the proceeds of crime through the account of an innocent and unknown person. Money laundering can carry a sentence of up to ten years. Much more likely is that at some point the bank will get suspicions and lock the account, registering the customer as a fraud suspect. Once that happens it becomes very hard to open an account anywhere else. And they may be locked out of the banking system forever.
The crooks will have set up a website, probably with a very similar name and format to a perfectly respectable company so it will seem to be a legitimate business. One useful check is to put the company name and the word ‘scam’ into Google and see what comes up. And before you think you or your younger relatives would never be so foolish, Financial Fraud Action estimates that 380,000 people may have been scammed using this technique. Anyone who becomes a money mule could bear the scars for a very long time.
If an account is locked and the bank is unwilling to discuss the matter it is vital to make a formal complaint and, if that does not work, go to the fraud organisation CIFAS. They should help get the fraud flag taken off and clear your name.
PENSION QUALITY
Pension schemes will have to cut their charges if they want to be awarded
the Pension Quality Mark by the National Association of Pension Funds. From this
month new entrants to the scheme must charge no more than 0.75% a year, down
from the previous limit of 1%. Schemes which already have the Quality Mark will
get two years to meet the new standard. With all employees being auto-enrolled
into a pension through their company it is vital that employers can choose a
home for pension savings where charges are low. The Pension Quality Mark is
given to schemes where the total contributions going into the pension is at
least 10% with at least 6% being paid by the employer. Pension Quality Mark Plus
is given to schemes with a minimum contribution of 15% with at least 10% of that
from the employer.
With charges now lower pension quality mark schemes will be even better value and workers should encourage their employer to find a PQM scheme for the workplace.
More information: www.pensionqualitymark.org.uk
WORTH LESS
Remember the farthing? It was a quarter of an old pre-decimal penny so there
were 960 to the pound. The last was minted in 1956 and the farthing finally
disappeared on 31 December 1960. The halfpenny survived another nine years until
31 July 1969. The new decimal halfpenny appeared in 1971 but it too went in
1984. So should we now get rid of the penny? In Canada they have already taken
that step – the 1c piece costs more to make than it is worth and is now
officially on the road to disappear. Traders are being advised to round prices
to the nearest nickel – 5c which is just over 3p. In the UK coins worth 10p or
less are made from steel rather than copper or zinc to try to cut costs but
don’t rule out a move to get rid of the penny. Already the new Governor of the
Bank of England says he is looking at using plastic for our banknotes.
The smallest coin in the world is the Uzbekistan 1 Tiyin. One hundred of them make one Uzbeki Som – and there are 3,062 Som to the pound. So it would take 3,062 Tiyin to be worth one penny. The coin is technically legal tender but hard to find.
e-mail Paul Lewis on paul@paullewis.co.uk