The rush to meet the voluntary national insurance contributions (NICs) top-up deadline of 5 April has forced HMRC to grant an extension to 31 July. The last major reform to state pensions took effect on 6 April 2016. From that date the second state pension and basic state pension were replaced by the new state […]
New measures affecting pension allowances announced in the March Budget could mean your retirement planning strategy needs to be reviewed. If Jeremy Hunt did produce a ‘rabbit-out-the-hat’ in his Spring Budget, it was the announcement of the effective abolition of the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA) from 2023/24. Since 2006, the LTA has been a cornerstone […]
The Budget announced three important changes to childcare provisions in England, but one trap remains. The cost of childcare has become a hot topic in recent years. Despite increasing demand, in March 2022 the number of childcare places available had little changed since August 2015. The government has attempted to address this in England (childcare […]
New research shows that global dividends have shaken off the impacts of Covid-19 and reverted to their pre-pandemic days, but the UK’s performance isn’t so promising. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it had contrasting impacts on the values of shares and the dividends they paid. While share prices dropped precipitously in the first […]
A new government bill indicates that a change to the automatic enrolment minimum age and increases to workplace pension contributions could be on the horizon. Private members’ bills rarely get far in the parliamentary process. They all too easily die at the hands of filibustering, as second and any subsequent readings of a […]
Unfortunately we now live in a world of fake news and ‘alternative facts’1 where parties shamelessly push their own agenda at the cost of salient facts. In order to be heard in the noise of social media, research headlines need to be bigger and more eye-catching. For those investing using an evidence-based approach that […]
