True cost to pension funds has been uderestimated

Whilst i'm on the subject of destroying Blair's legacy, one thing that won't go away is Gordon Brown and his handling of our pensions.

According to a couple of tiny snippets, on page 34 on today's Times, Gordon's tax grab on pension schemes has "cost Britain's 200 largest schemes £20billion". A staggering four times the estimated annual cost to the pensions industry as a whole. The result of this that the average UK household can now expect to see it's income fall by 50 percent upon retirement.

Cheers, Gordon!

Vote of no-confidence in Brown's pensions decision.

It's taken a long time, but the tories are now looking like an opposition that means business, and will hold the government to account at every opportunity. But even I didn't expect to see the headline, "Brown facing no-confidence debate" on the BBC's website this morning.

Tory MPs are set to call for a vote of no confidence in Gordon Brown over his decision, in his first budget in 1997, to scrap tax relief on pension funds. Shadow chancellor George Osborne has called his party's Commons motion a test of whether Mr Brown has the "political courage to apologise".

However, becuase of Labour's majority he'll sail through the vote. But, the fact that this vote is being taken so seriously, instead of being laughed off as it would have been a few years ago, is that at last the spin that has covered up the poor decisions is finally being broken down with the consequnce of those decision now apparent for all to see.

Like I said, although Gordon will sail through this, it will be highly embarassing for him to even face this vote and have his decisions debated in parliament. Not exactly the smooth transition that he wanted.

Another poll slump for Brown.

Today will not be a very happy Easter Sunday for Gordon Brown, by the time he finishes reading the Sunday papers, as they do not make pretty reading. The lastest round of polls have thrown up his lowest personal rating yet, with just 28% of the public thinking that he'll make a good Prime Minister. A slump of 10 points, not what you would call a little blip.

This of course seems to be the expected reaction to the revelations that he has finally been caught with his hands in the till, with pension funds.

However, these polls are again being dismissed by Labour as mid-term jitters, and in truth they have a point. The problem is, for Gordon Brown, that for him they aren't mid-term, as for him they could have a real effect on his chances of becoming Prime Minister. After all, would you want to appoint an electoral liability as leader of your party? I wouldn't.

The chickens are finally coming home to roost for this government, the spin that has covered up their poorly thought out policies, is now as transparent as a window. Blair's insistance for a legacy is in tatters, as the electorate now don't trust his party, and especially Gordon Brown. He may have been the Chancellor for ten years, but the stealth taxes, NHS cuts, money for Education that never materialised, and the "theft" of billions of pounds of the people's pensions, will tarnish him as you seeks higher office.

The pensions smoking gun is revealed

After ten years, and a two year battle with The Times, the smoking gun in Gordon Brown's pensions theft has finally been revealed.

It has been common knowledge for quite some time that the scrapping of the Dividend Tax credit has all but destroyed workplace pension schemes. Which, and let's be honest about this, is only going to effect working class people who rely on these schemes when they retire. So much for being the party of the workers.

However, it's the extent of Gordon's knowledge about the effect that his tax grab would have, that has been a bone of contention over the last decade. Personally I have always believed that Gordon won't even take a shit without thinking about how the treasury will make out of it, but others have believed that he could not have predicted the pensions blackhole. But, as revealed in today's Times, the Chancellor defied repeated warnings from his own officials about the potentially devastating impact that his £5 billion-a-year raid on pension funds would have, therefore and went ahead with it. The result of that decision, turned Britain's pensions system from being one of the best in the world to one of the worst. Which begs the question "What kind of Chancellor ignores that kind of advice"? Simple, a crap one.

Should we be surprised though. No, unfortunately it comes as no surprise whatsoever. After all this is the "Labour" Chancellor, that has consistantly hit the working classes, with stealth tax after stealth tax, and even blatantly raised taxes on the porrest in society in his last budget with the scrapping of the 10% tax band.

Although I have to laugh at the current bullet dodging by the treasury, who have so far blamed, David Cameron, the dot.com crash, the pension holidays in the 1980s and 1990s, and the rise in life expectancy as the causes of the pensions blackhole. I think they need to look a little closer to home to find the real cause.

Gordon Brown's true reputation is now clear for everyone to see, as the spin and deception unravels in front of him.

Government loses High Court battle over pensions

Yet again the Government has been found wanting as it has another of it's decisions been tried in court.

On this occasion the High Court has ruled that the government was wrong to completely reject the Parliamentary Ombudsman's report into collapsed pension schemes. The Ombudsman, had said last year that the government was "guilty of maladministration".

However, the High Court decision does not mean that the government must compensate an estimated 85,000 people for their loss, but it is highly embarassing, especially for Gordon Brown who has successfully masterminded the destruction of our pensions with his dividend tax.

Although I must add that this wilfull neglect is something that is quite normal from this government. They were held to account by the pensions ombudsman, and found guilty, but this government simply chose to ignore it.

Pure and total arrogance.

Government in court

A group of campaigners for people who lost their life savings when company pensions schemes went bust, accused the Government of persistent dishonesty ahead of a European Court of Justice ruling on the scandal which according to today's Telegraph, is due tomorrow.

Te government stands accused of reassuring members of company pensions that their money was fully protected, when they knew it was not. Now they plan automatic enrolment for personal account pensions, even though that they know that many people will not see any benefit from them because of means testing.

The European Court is due to rule on a test case tomorrow to decide whether the Government failed to implement EU directives to protect company retirement funds.

However, although this is a step in the right direction for holding Gordon Brown to account over pernsions, I don't think this case goes far enough. After all, why isn't it looking at "why" company pensions schemes are failing.

In a statement a DWP spokeperson told the Telegraph "The Government did not cause these schemes to fail. These schemes were not run by the Government. We do not believe it would be fair to ask the taxpayer to fully underwrite what were private company pension schemes."

I'm sorry but that is quite simply not true as Company ension schemes are either failing, or in defecit, as a direct result of Gordon's "Dividend Tax", where he has creamed off Billions of pounds from the schemes values straight into the treasury's coffers.

It's not looking pretty for Gordon.

Labour's latest bid to kill off pensions

The inventors of welfare state are due to announce their latest plans for destroying parts of it later today.

Under the rules of a new Compulsory Savings Scheme Millions of workers will see the value of their pensions collapse These rules will result in companies being forced to pay into a pension scheme for their workers from 2012.

However, by putting the increased burden of the costs of the scheme on to businesses, the financial directors of those companies will simply reduce their contributions so that they can spread the load of the increase.

In addition, it is feared that Labour will today abandon proposals by its pensions czar Lord Turner for an annual cap of £3,000 contributions into the new pension, set to be called Personal Accounts. The cap was designed to make sure only low-earners paid into the pension scheme. If it is raised, possibly to £5,000, higher earners will be able to join.

These plans have already been criticised by leading pension investment companies, such as Scottish Widows, have gone on record as stating, "If we are right, workplace pension provision will be less generous for many than it is today. "It is very worrying that companies which already have generous pension arrangements are likely to reduce their contributions once Personal Accounts are introduced."

What the Work and Pensions Secretary, has also failed to mention in these new plans is Gordon Brown's tax swipe on Company Pension Scheme, which have already seen, close to £100billion wiped off their value, thanks to his Dividend Tax.

So, if contributions from Companies begin to fall, and the amount invested has it's investment returns taxed, there won;t be a great deal of cash left.

Our Pensions used to be one of the best, but thatnks to Gordon, there are now severely lacking in funds. After all, Pensions were always a "tax free" investment. If the investment returns are being taxed, they can hardly be described as tax free.

However, John Hutton has come out fighting and has been quoted as saying that the new scheme wil result in a "catalyst for a new savings culture in our country."

Rubbish.

A culture is not created by people being "forced" into anything.

Extreme Long-term planning.

I've heard of long-term planning, but the latest proposals for pensions, announce by John Hutton, really do take the biscuit.

Central to the government's Pensions bill are proposals to raise the state pension age to 68 by 2050. A whole forty-four years away! There is a potential ten general elections in that time. But as usual, the government are under the delusion that they will still be in power by then, and that they have the answer to a crisis that Gordon Brown has created, without having to admit that he got it wrong.

The main proposals of the new pensions bill are:

• Link increases in the basic state pension to earnings during the next Parliament.
  
• Raise the state pension age to 66 between 2024-2026, to 67 between 2034-2036, and to 68 between 2044-2046.
  
• Reduce the number of years it takes to build a full basic state pension from 44 years for men and 39 for women to 30 years for everyone.
  
• Create a new delivery authority to "bring on board the expertise needed to design a personal accounts system".

However, what they have failed to address in the bill is the performance of Compnay Pension Schemes. The ones that have been desimated by the chancellor. Prior to his multi-billion pound take snatch, company pension schemes were performing well, and providing for their former employees. But thanks to his dividends tax, most of the profits made by such schemes, which funds them, has been snatched by the treasury.

Something to bear in mind, in that Gordon Brown has not only snatched our retirement money, but now he is trying to make our kids pay for it.

Gordon's "£100billion" tax grab on our pensions

Another story in the Sunday Telegraph caught my eye this morning, as I have been banging on about it for ages.

An indepent report compiled by the Institute of Actuaries, has finally worked out the Gordon Brown's "pension stealth tax" has reduced the value of retirement funds by at least £100 billion!

The report's timing will be highly embarassing for the Chancellor, as he attempts to woo Britain's voters into to thinking the he is PM material. But how can anyone trust him after he single-handedly created the pensions crisis that this country now faces.

Many young people are not setting up a pension funds, because of the poor performance of pension funds. But they are only performing poorly thanks to Gordon's tax grab.

Gordon created this mess, pensioners are finding their funds values are greatly reduced, companied are closing their schemes because of defecits, and thousands who have paid into a fund for years now find them worthless or even closed.

The pensions crisis is not going to be easy to solve, but it will never get any better unless this tax grab stops.

Thanks Gordon, it's nice to know that you care about the welfare of the elderly.

Benefit hotlines are a stealth tax on the unemployed

In the latest in a line of hidden taxes, it has been revealed that the Government made £268,000 from benefit helplines with the premium rate 0845 prefix.

The Department for Work Pensions operates about 2,000 hotlines. Some, such as the Pension Credit line, are free, while others with the prefix 0845 charge between 1p and 3p per minute, with mobile phone being charged in even higher rate.

However, many people on benefits do not have telephone landlines, and use mobile phones instead. Plus many of those benefit claimants use top-up mobile phones which can often charge even more than a mobile on a contract.

What stinks the most is that due to a catalogue of computer errors, many benefits claimants are being paid incorrectly, therefore forcing them to phone these premium rate lines in the first place.

What else is being paid back to the government that we don't know about?

Another pension scheme in the red

BA is the latest in a string of firms to announce that it's pension fund is in serious defecit. The figures released today suggest that the funds shortfall is set to double to £2.1billion.

Despite the defecit the airline still plans to keep its final salary pension scheme, with no increase in staff contribution rates, and will make a £500m one-off payment if unions agree to new arrangements.

However, in recent months there has been a noticeable increase in the number of big employers having to take similar measures to improve the finances of their pension schemes. Among them have been Sainsbury's, London Underground, BAE Systems, the drinks firm Diageo, Rolls Royce, Reuters, Lloyds TSB and most recently the Bank of England.

So why have so many of our largest companies found such large holes in their scheme's finances. Is it due to a lack of contributions? No, if an employee doesn't contribute they don't get a pension. Is it due to people living longer and drawing more of a pension? Maybe, it certainly doesn't help. Or, is the fall in a pension fund's value due to a multi-million pound tax grab by the Chancellor? Hmmm.... let me think, I think it may well be.

Before Gordon Brown's tax grab, the only way a pension fund failed to pay up was if the firm went bankrupt, or it's owner nicked it. Now firms across the country are struggling to pay it's pensioners thanks to him. He has damaged busines, and put at risk millions of pensioners funds.

Not exactly a great advert for people to invest in a pension fund really, is it.

The failures of Chancellor Brown

Economic figures released over the last few days should make us all very concerned. For the last nine years, Gordon Brown has prided himself over "his" economic policy. He is even using his credentials as Chancellor as his platform for his leadership bid.

But the current state of the economy is a far cry from the rose tinted view of Mr Brown.

This morning it was announced that the number of people unemployed in Britain has risen to it highest levels since 2000. In addition, due to the soaring costs of housing, that Mr Brown is unwilling to do anything about, hundreds of thousands of people are failing to maintain mortgage payments and risk losing their homes.

So just how well is the Chancellor doing? Well let me boil it down to the bare bones.

• Unemployment has increased to it highest levels since 2000.
• Inflation is increasing, and isn't within his target.
• Interest rates will be increasing over the next few months, the Bank of England have already told us that.
• Unchecked housing prices are causing people to take in too much debt.
• Some 770,000 people have missed one or more mortgage repayments in the past year, increasing the risk of repossessions.
• NHS defecits are increasing, and NHS chiefs fear cutting services to make the books balance.
• Government borrowing far exceeds Gordon Brown's own rules leaving the country in debt.
• Tax grabs on pension schemes have left companies unable to pay their pensioners, leaving them in poverty.

Gordon Brown needs to look at these issues before claiming he has done so well, as if he's that bad as the Chancellor, just how much trouble will he cause the country as PM?

Scrap stamp duty on shares to boost pensions

That's the call from Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne in this morning's Sunday Telegraph.

In what can only be described as a clear swipe at Gordon Brown, George Osborne, said "the move would form part of a package of measures designed to increase competitiveness and boost the value of pensions".

About time too,. Since Mr Brown's tax grab on our pension funds, which isn't going to give back, he has left millions of pensioners struggling to pay the bills.

However, simply reversing the Pension Fund Tax that Labour introduced in 1998, won't solve the problem. The abolish of stamp duty on shares, the main investment tool of fund managers, will increase the average fund value by £8000.

At last, joined up thinking, the likes of which we haven't seen with economic policy since Gordon took over.