Archive for category Social Security
Linking the Offender and Benefits Databases
Posted by Nigel Williams in Crime, Economics, Social Security on 04/01/2012
The Ministry of Justice and Department for Work and Pensions are to be congratulated for linking together databases of offenders and benefit claimants to see what can be learnt about individuals appearing on both systems. There is enough overlap, people that at different times offend and receive benefits, to reveal some patterns, provided one is careful not to assume that all benefit recipients must also be offenders.
House, Degree, Life or Pension?
Posted by Nigel Williams in Economics, Social Security, Tax and Spend on 10/10/2011
This is the last of a short series on the subject of pensions. In an earlier post, I considered the situation of a low-wage earner saving in order to preserve a constant income after retirement. I now present a final example to illustrate the retirement planning of someone further up the income scale.
How Can Anyone Afford a Pension?
Posted by Nigel Williams in Economics, Social Security on 22/09/2011
This is part of a short series looking at questions raised by the Civitas publication “You’re On Your Own“, by Peter Morris and Alasdair Palmer.
Life’s an expense and then you die. The Office for National Statistics’ estimate of life expectancy for children born from 2007 to 2009 was 80 years, four years more for women than for men.
Government has abandoned private pension savers to predatory financial sector
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Press Release, Social Security on 12/09/2011
End of defined benefit pensions a tragedy for prudent savers
Millions of pensioners will have their retirement incomes stripped of between 20% and 75% of their value, reveals a new Civitas report. You’re on Your Own, by Peter Morris and Alasdair Palmer, outlines how the collapse of defined benefit pension schemes, which guarantee savers a fixed annual retirement income, has resulted in less saving. But it permitted new anti-consumer practices to emerge amongst pension providers. The result is that, despite conscientiously saving during their working years, millions of Britons will be far worse off in retirement than they should be.
The 2011 Budget – a response
Posted by David Merlin-Jones in Economics, Politics, Social Security, Tax and Spend on 23/03/2011
‘The Budget for Growth’ was how Chancellor George Osborne described it. Really? Of timid growth perhaps, but not the real growth Britain needs to see. Moreover, it has prioritised unrealistic green targets over economic development – a highly unwise manoeuvre. Below, the good, the ok and the really bad points of The Budget are unravelled. Read the rest of this entry »
All you need is love?
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Politics, Social Cohesion, Social Security, Tax and Spend on 14/02/2011
It is perhaps fitting that on Valentine’s Day David Cameron attempted to stoke up love for the Big Society in the face of recent criticism. It is perhaps doubly fitting because the success of the Big Society may depend upon love, or largely altruistic feelings, in the short term at least.
