From 2012 workers will be automatically enrolled into their company's pension scheme, although they will retain the right to opt out.

According to a survey, 41% of firms questioned said they were "likely or highly likely" to reduce future scheme benefits to meet the additional cost of these newly-pensioned employees.

Just over half the organisations also favoured a delay in introducing auto-enrolment, which is due to begin in October 2012.

The survey - by the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) - quizzed 210 large private and public sector employers with combined pension scheme assets of £166 billion.

Auto-enrolment is being phased in between 2012 and 2017, following new laws brought in by the previous Labour government.

Companies will initially only have to pay in 1% of a worker's earnings, rising to a minimum of 3% by 2017. Individuals will have to contribute 4% of their salary to their scheme, with the Government topping this up with 1%.

Three-quarters of respondents to the ACA survey said staff with less than three months of service should not be auto-enrolled, currently required under the new rules, while 60% felt employers with fewer than five staff should be exempted altogether.

The findings come after the demise of many final salary pension schemes - which guarantee staff a percentage of their final salary when they retire. Most private-sector workers now pay into "money purchase" pension plans, where benefits depend on investment returns.

Source: Press Association

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) handed down a near-record £150,000 fine to a company director in the case for failures regarding insurance policies.

Four other people were also banned following a separate insurance investigation by the FSA.

Fourteen people in insurance businesses have been banned this year by the FSA.

Large fine

One of the largest fines - of £150,000 - was handed down by the FSA to Andrew Jeffery, from West Sussex.

The director of Jeffery Flanders (Consulting) Limited failed to put insurance policies in place despite collecting payment of hundreds of pounds from customers, according to the watchdog.

"In so doing, he exposed customers to risks such as not having adequate household or motor insurance," the FSA said.

"This was particularly serious as many of the customers were elderly or vulnerable. He also knowingly forged documentation and correspondence potentially to mislead insurance companies."

He also obstructed the FSA's investigation, the watchdog said.

In a separate case, four people - Barrie Duncan Aspden, Melanie Aspden, Gaenor Clayton and Paul Willment - were all banned for their part in issues relating to Orion Direct Limited and motor insurance site Peppercom.

Barrie Duncan Aspden used approximately £300,000 of Orion client money to finance the creation of a new company Click the Pepper, which traded as Peppercom.

"His actions meant that several hundred customers of Orion were put at risk of being uninsured because their premiums were misused," the FSA said.

Source: BBC News

In the second quarter of 2010, the number of buy-to-let mortgages taken out was 24,900, up 13% on the previous quarter, and 15% higher than the same period last year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said.

At the end of June, there were 1.26 million buy-to-let mortgages outstanding, worth a total of £149 billion, accounting for 12% of all mortgages - the highest proportion since records began, the CML said.

The group said the freezing of the buy-to-let mortgage market that emerged as an unwelcome side-effect of the credit crunch appeared to have eased.

With fewer people able to afford entry costs of home-ownership, the CML predicted tenant demand for private rented property would remain strong.

Low interest rates helped to reduce the number of landlords who are behind with their mortgage repayments, the CML said.

Around 18,500 people, the equivalent of 1.46% of all those with buy-to-let loans, were in arrears of at least 1.5% of their outstanding mortgage at the end of June, down from 19,300 at the end of 2009, and 22,900 a year earlier.

There was a slight increase in the number of properties that were repossessed at 1,600, up from 1,400 during the previous three months, and 1,400 a year earlier.

The CML said it anticipated little change in the wider housing market over the latter part of this year, and forecast only a modest rise for 2010 for the wider mortgage market.

There are 11.4 million mortgages in the UK, with loans worth over £1.2 trillion.

Source: Press Association

The Ernst & Young Item Club said rates would need to be kept low to counter-balance the government's spending cuts.

"A base rate of 0.5% will begin to look like the new normal," Professor Peter Spencer from the Item Club said.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has said that it expects rates to start to rise next year.

Interest rates have stood at 0.5% since March 2009.

"The new coalition's plans to cut the deficit are certainly ambitious," said Prof Spencer.

"On the assumption that the government is able to implement the overall reduction of £40bn set out in the Budget, we expect that UK growth will struggle to reach 1% this year but will gradually speed up in the following years to give the UK a high-quality recovery based on trade and investment."

The Item Club believes the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation will stay above the Bank of England's 2% target over the next 18 months, helped by high energy prices and increases in VAT.

But it says inflation will then fall "well below 2% as these effects wear off and spare capacity bears down on pricing decisions and wage bargaining".

"To prevent CPI inflation moving below 1% it will be necessary keep the Bank base rate low at 0.5% for much longer than the OBR and the markets have anticipated," Item said.

Source: BBC News

Mr Cable also said customers are losing out because of a lack of competition in a marketplace dominated by a small number of big banks.

He was speaking after a survey for the BBC's Panorama programme revealed the average interest charged on unauthorised overdrafts was as much as 167%.

The research also found banks were demanding an average 32% interest on authorised overdrafts, despite advertised rates of around 19%.

Mr Cable said: "When we talk about restructuring the banks what's going to come out of this is a more competitive system where the customers are not ripped off.

"One of the negative side effects of this crisis is that our banking system that was already very concentrated is now even more concentrated so there's less competition, less choice and bigger temptation for banks to earn margins at the expense of their customers."

Source: Press Association

Pensions Minister Steve Webb has called for the schemes to rise each year in line with inflation as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI), rather than the retail prices index (RPI).

The move, which is expected to be introduced next year, would bring the inflation measure used for private sector pensions in line with public sector ones.

The Government also recently announced that benefits and the state pension would rise in line with CPI rather than RPI in future.

CPI is considered to be a more appropriate measure of inflation for pensioners, as it excludes housing costs, such as mortgage interest, which retired people are less likely to pay. But the move is likely to cost workers hundreds of pounds a year over the course of their retirement, as CPI is generally lower than RPI.

The Government also announced that benefits paid by pensions safety net the Pension Protection Fund and the Financial Assistance Scheme would also rise in line with CPI rather than RPI in future.

In a written statement, Mr Webb said: "The Government believes the CPI provides a more appropriate measure of pension recipients' inflation experiences and is also consistent with the measure of inflation used by the Bank of England. We believe, therefore, it is right to use the same index in determining increases for all occupational pensions and payments made by the Pension Protection Fund and Financial Assistance Scheme."

Source: Press Association

It says the government should scrap forced retirement immediately, currently set at 65 years for both men and women.

The survey showed more than two thirds thought the principle of forced retirement was wrong.

Age UK is asking the government to make clear its plans for the retirement age.

Under the current system, employers can tell any member of staff to leave work once they pass their 65th birthday, whether the individual wants to stop work or not.

One who did not want to retire was John White, a 69 year-old postman.

He was forced to leave work in July last year, despite the fact he loved his job and was good at it - a fact confirmed by his manager.

He points out that the higher-paid professions, such as politicians, doctors and judges, can keep on working past 65 - the age at which the state pension is paid to men.

Source: BBC News

Defined benefit pension schemes are typically thought to have around 1.5% of their assets invested directly in BP, accounting for around 6% of all the money they hold in UK equities.

But some funds may hold considerably more, for example a pension scheme that tries to replicate the performance of the FTSE 100 would have around 6% of its total assets invested in the company.

BP's share price has now fallen by around a third since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on April 20, killing 11 workers.

It is difficult to put a figure on exactly how much this will have wiped off the value of pension schemes, but it is thought to be hundreds of millions of pounds, if not billions of pounds, once the impact on defined contribution schemes and personal pensions is also factored in.

Laith Khalaf, pensions analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The poor performance of a big stock like BP can have a disproportionate impact on funds. There have also been other falls in the stock market as well. If the market had been doing well in recent months, it might not have been such a big issue."

Source: Press Association

The Financial Services Authority said it was temporarily waiving the six month time limit in which people need to refer a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service after they have received their final response from the company involved.

The move, which comes into force from Friday and will run until October 27 this year, applies to people who received a final response from the firm they bought the cover from between November 28 last year and April 28, 2010.

The regulator said the action was being taken to ensure that people who had recently complained about the sale of PPI were not disadvantaged by running out of time to refer their complaint to the ombudsman.

It is currently working with the industry to ensure that customers are treated consistently and fairly when they complain about the sale of PPI and when they buy a policy.

PPI covers debt repayments if the holder is unable to work due to an accident or illness or if they are made redundant.

But it has come in for heavy criticism after research found it had been mis-sold to many consumers who would never be able to claim on it, while others felt pressurised into taking it out alongside a loan or credit card.

Source:Press Association

The plan will be in the Pensions and Savings Bill, which was outlined in the Queen's Speech.

The state pension age is already scheduled to rise to 68 in stages, between 2024 and 2046.

Separately, the government will also restore a link between the basic state pension and the rise in average earnings, from 2011.

The move should lead to a substantial long-term improvement in the value of the state pension.

Its value as a proportion of earnings has declined, from 26% to 16%, since the old link between average earnings and the state pension was cut in 1980, and replaced with a link to inflation as measured by the Retail Prices Index.

As well as linking the state pension increases to the rise in average earnings, the government has also already pledged to raise pensions in any case "by the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%".

It was the Labour government's policy in recent years to raise state pensions by at least 2.5%, even if inflation was lower, though this was a discretionary policy renewed each year.

The coalition describes its new approach as giving pensioners a "triple-lock" so they will always benefit from a minimum 2.5% annual rise.

Source: BBC News