Thousands Of British Pensioners Facing ‘Financial Ruin’, Experts Warn | Welfare Weekly

Last Updated: May 26, 2015By

Thousands of British pensioners are facing the stark reality of ‘financial ruin’ just four weeks into the new Pensions Scheme Act, experts have warned.

Rushed decisions and poor advice is threatening the long-term financial security of pension savers, suddenly gifted the opportunity by the government to raid their pension pots.

Experts at Greyfriars Asset Management LLP, say pension enquires have soared by a staggering 50% since the new pension freedoms came into force.

Desperate savers have called the wealth management company, concerned that they may have made a rash decision in withdrawing cash from their pension savings.

The company has warned of emerging ‘horror stories’ from savers who have [been] swindled [out of] their life savings, or people facing the prospect of huge tax bills.

Source: Thousands Of British Pensioners Facing ‘Financial Ruin’, Experts Warn | Welfare Weekly

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14 Comments

  1. paulmac49 May 26, 2015 at 7:57 pm - Reply

    It was always going to happen from the start.

  2. Shaun-127 May 26, 2015 at 9:02 pm - Reply

    Hi Mike, this a very revealing instance of this government placing the needs of ‘financial spivs’ and electoral success over the needs of the public and the long-term economic goal of assisting pensioners to have an independent retirement. There is also the macro-effect of £ millions (or billions?) being suddenly released from ‘savings’ into expenditure. This latter aspect could be nothing or it may be have some significance, there is oft quoted talk of shiny new cars, house extensions and holidays. I assume the multiplier could be quite high on that type of expenditure.
    ShaunT

  3. Thomas May 27, 2015 at 6:08 am - Reply

    Maybe the ones who voted Tory won’t be so quick to vote Tory in 2020, if they are still alive then.

  4. Sasson Hann May 27, 2015 at 7:14 am - Reply

    People withdrawing funds should think very carefully about this. They may be quite healthy at present, but if that changes and they need home care the LAs may view the spending as a ‘deprivation’ and still calculate their care costs as if these people still held these funds. That could make for one very hefty care bill!

  5. NMac May 27, 2015 at 7:37 am - Reply

    How many pensioners, I wonder, voted for the Tories?

  6. Kid May 27, 2015 at 7:54 am - Reply

    A sudden boost to make the economy look good for a moment to ally the fears of the sheep? Miserable lives for pensioners down the track with No Welfare safety net to fall back on- Genocide of Elderly??

  7. Chris May 27, 2015 at 4:04 pm - Reply

    The pension pots spent on trivia or lost to dodgy investment companies, happened a long time ago.
    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/when-will-you-listen-don-t-let-hmrc-take-our-famliy-homes

    There is nothing to stop it happening again, as the government gains 55 per cent tax rate on the money.

    Meanwhile the lying Lib Dems (now happily ex Pensions Minister Steve Webb) told people going to retire from next year, they would all get the £155 flat rate state pension.

    The truth is that it is LESS NOT MORE or even NIL STATE PENSION for huge numbers of men and women. The single tier will never exist. And the flat rate pension is flat alright. Flat as a pancake.

    The lowest forecast so far is a man in Scotland (still liable for the flat rate up there) with just £8.39 per week coming to him next year after 45 years in work.

    So I am asiking if the SNP and Labour combined can share my petition widely, to inform the Tory voters that they are being shafted by Tory law – Pension Bill 2014 that introduced the flat rate state pension law on and from 6 April 2016.

    https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

    The more the victims – of which they are many, from those with money, to those with nothing other than the state pension in life – are aware, the more the Tories will be exposed as not protecting pensioners at all.

    Only Ulster has escaped the flat rate state pension law.

    Please share on social media – Facebook and Twitter.

    My old computer so old browsers cannot.

  8. Joan Edington May 28, 2015 at 12:21 pm - Reply

    As others have said, this was always going to be a disaster, especially with the timing. In the good old days of high savings rates it would have been possible to do much better than many pensions paid. Now, with these low rates, it is only the desperation for ready money that would make any sensible person cash in a pension. People are being fleeced worse than if they had taken out pay-day loans.

    As for the “flat-rate” pension, I nearly exploded when I read some pension prick the other day say quite casually that he was sorry that they made it sound like anyone would get the full rate if they had paid 35 years NI. It was meant to say “full-rate” NI. The reduction or even total destruction of someone’s retirement life seemed to him no more than an unfortunate typo. Public sector workers will be hit the worst since I think they do not pay full-rate NI at all during their working life. I don’t know if that is changing with the new pensions law.

    • Mike Sivier May 28, 2015 at 12:39 pm - Reply

      You remind me of a dialogue I had with a person on Twitter, who seemed very much a supporter of what the Tories have done, and who wouldn’t accept that the government had an obligation to avoid putting people into the situation where the “financial ruin” under discussion might be possible. Here it is:

      Twitter pensions dialogue

      Her parting comment was, “I couldn’t disagree more with that.”

      • wildswimmerpete May 28, 2015 at 3:15 pm - Reply

        Typical self-assured young twerp (assuming that’s her pic in her tweet). Assuming she actually makes pension age I suspect she’ll have changed her tune. I’m glad the pension escalator stopped for me and now drawing my State pension. Heaven help anyone born a year later than me.

      • Joan Edington May 29, 2015 at 11:16 am - Reply

        How on earth can you say that my comments were in any way in support of what the Tories did when my first words were that it was always going to be a disaster? When I said people were being fleeced both by the need for readies (brought about by Tory policies) and by the mis-representing of the qualifications for the full flat-rate pension? Get a grip.

        • Mike Sivier May 29, 2015 at 12:35 pm - Reply

          I didn’t say your comments supported the Tories. My comment was that you reminded me of a dialogue I had with a Tory supporter who simply refused to accept that the government should have formulated better policy (rather than the disaster you mentioned), and then I reproduced that dialogue.
          Please try to think before making knee-jerk reactions like this.

          • Joan Edington May 29, 2015 at 12:58 pm

            Sorry Mike. It just sounded as if you were comparing me to that Jill person.

          • Mike Sivier May 29, 2015 at 1:16 pm

            Not at all – in fact I was supporting your comment, in contrast with hers. Perhaps I should have made it clearer.

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