Car credit insurance

Governments are often accused of thinking short term.

But a pensions reform Bill, included in the Queen’s Speech, is one of the most consciously long term bits of planning seen for some time.

Looking ahead to 2050, its main aim is to provide a higher level of state pension for many more people over the coming decades.

The big idea is that the link between the basic state pension and earnings will be restored some time after 2012 and the state pension age will be raised to 68 by 2046.

Just as importantly, the pensions of millions of women will be boosted because current mean that many do not accumulate enough national insurance s to qualify for a full pension.

Consensus

There has been widespread support for the plans as outlined in the government’s recent White Paper.

The key thing is that this is long term stuff Richard Brooks, IPPR

“There is broad consensus for the re-indexation of the basic state pension with earnings, reasonable support for raising the state pension age, but less consensus for the model for the new personal accounts,” said Niki Cleal, director of the Pensions Policy Institute.

It is important to note that current pensioners will hardly be affected at all by the plans.

In fact, the younger you are the more important the changes are.

Richard Brooks, an associate director at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), said this was a big change in direction.

“The key thing is that this is long-term stuff,” he said.

“They are trying to rebuild the value of the state pension and stop the spread of means testing.”

Women

If the indexation of state pensions with earnings rather than inflation is combined, as planned, with a cut to 30 in the number of years of work or caring needed to qualify for a full state pension, the biggest winners will be women.

Women will have much to gain from pension reform, says the government

This is welcomed strongly by the trades union , the TUC.

“I think the package is a very big deal - the most radical set of reforms for 50 years,” said Michelle Lewis, pensions officer of the TUC.

But she pointed out that trade unionists are still unhappy that the basic state retirement age will be raised progressively.

“We are still to be convinced that the state pension needs to be raised,” she said.

“Many of our members work in areas where they are pretty worn out by 65.”

Lord Turner

The government launched its consultation earlier this year, in the wake of the proposals put forward by Lord Turner’s Pensions Commission.

Generally these plans are quite well thought through Matt Wakefield, IFS

But the government immediately raised some people’s suspicions that it would try to wriggle out of one of the main recommendations - that increases in the state pension should be linked to the rise in average earnings.

Back in May, the Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said a precise date for this would only be announced at the start of the next government and would be “subject to affordability and the fiscal position”.

Since then several ministerial pronouncements have sought to reassure people that re-indexation really will come in, and by 2015 at the very latest.

But this verbal wrangle highlights a fundamental problem with any piece of long term legislation.

“Generally these plans are quite well thought through,” said Matt Wakefield, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies,

“But this government can’t commit every government from now until 2050 to keep earnings indexation.”

National pensions savings scheme

One element that will not be included in the new legislation will be Lord Turner’s idea for a new national pensions savings scheme, or “personal accounts”, as the government likes to call them.

Lord Turner, architect of the government’s pensions reforms

This idea is going to be the subject of another White Paper in December and a further round of consultation.

This has been controversial with the private pensions industry hoping to get a slice of the business running such accounts for the state.

As currently proposed, all employers who do not currently pay into a pension scheme for their staff will have to start doing so.

Employers will pay 3% of salaries, employees will pay 4% and the government will contribute 1%.

There is a growing suspicion in some quarters though that this may lead to an example of the law of unintended consequences.

The fear is other employers might cut their current, higher, level of pension contribution down to the minimum level required by the Personal Accounts system.

“I think with the NPSS it is almost defining the level of contribution the government thinks is acceptable,” said Ian Price, head of pensions at investment firm St. James’s Place.

“So what you could have is an employer saying ‘what I need to have is a scheme requiring a maximum contribution of 8% - if it’s good enough for the NPSS (an early name for Personal Accounts) why isn’t it good enough for us? ”

The police photo of Lin Liang Ren shows a bemused, , scruffy individual - looking every inch a crime victim rather than a perpetrator.

But the truth about Lin is a tale of wealth, privilege and a good education - in stark contrast to the compatriots he abandoned to the Irish Sea.

He was brought up in Fuqing City in south east China’s Fujian province, his family owning a second house in the country.

His father, Lin Xien Hua, 57, and mother, Chen He Zhu, 52, ensured that Lin, his brother and sister - who now lives in Argentina - were well-educated.

He qualified as an accountant and became head of
finance at Fuqing’s Mo Chang Plastics Company - a firm that employed 900 people.

‘Someone of substance’

But Fujian is a hotbed of Chinese to the West and Lin soon realised the opportunities this presented.

As Det Supt Mick Gradwell, who led the inquiry, put it: “He was someone of substance in China - the idea he came here in order to go out on the beach and pick cockles himself is far fetched.”

Zhao Xiao Qing was convicted of offences

In 2000 he came to Britain and posed as a student to gain a visa.
He kept up this cover by paying 1,500 a time to enrol in college courses in London and Manchester.

Liverpool’s Chinatown gave him the manpower he need to start his business - and he set about forging cockling permits and providing fake National Insurance numbers.

But Lin would not be dirtying his own hands with manual labour. He told police: “I don’t like the cold and I don’t like the water.”

He would drive his workers to and from the sands - to and from the squalid houses and flats he rented for them.

Meanwhile, he would return to the house he shared with his young girlfriend, Zhao Xiao Qing, or take his red Mitsubishi sports car into the city centre to visit casinos.

Yet after the tragedy, he tried to claim he was just an ordinary worker - while warning his tired, frightened charges of “serious consequences” for any who blew his cover.

“There is a level of uncaring arrogance about Lin Liang Ren - the thread that comes through all this is money,” Mr Gradwell said.

Aviva, which owns Norwich Union, said it planned to cut more than 4,000 jobs across the country by 2008.

City of York Council said the losses were “a bitter blow” and it would do all it could to support those affected.

In the past year, York has suffered job cuts by chocolate makers Terry’s and Nestle and more recently British Sugar.

Aviva said that half of the job losses were expected to be made through compulsory redundancies.

The York centre deals with Norwich Union’s marketing, strategy, IT and finance and employs 3,485 staff.

Aviva said the changes were necessary as consumers changed the way they bought insurance.

It is a bitter blow when a major employer announces such large job losses, particularly when so many are in York Bill Woolley, City of York Council’s director of strategy

But workers’ union Amicus the cuts as “absolutely brutal”.

“They are treating their staff with contempt and clearly have more regard for their shareholder profits than their UK workforce.”

In addition to the Norwich Union job losses, Aviva also plans to close its York office of the BSM driving school by December 2007 with the loss of four jobs.

Strong economy

The council’s director of city strategy, Bill Woolley, said he was shocked and surprised by news of the city’s cuts.

“It is a bitter blow when a major employer announces such large job losses, particularly when so many are in York,” he said.

He said the council had spoken to regional development agency Forward, Business Link, The Learning and Skills Council, Job Centre Plus and York College to see how the organisations could work together to help those who have been made redundant.

“We will be setting up an urgent meeting of all the relevant partners to see how we can maximise our joint efforts,” he added.

“However, despite this news, York’s economy remains strong. The task now is to ensure that all those who are affected by the Norwich Union can benefit from its strength.”

Governments are often accused of thinking short term.

But a pensions reform Bill, included in the Queen’s Speech, is one of the most consciously long term bits of planning seen for some time.

Looking ahead to 2050, its main aim is to provide a higher level of state pension for many more people over the coming decades.

The big idea is that the link between the basic state pension and earnings will be restored some time after 2012 and the state pension age will be raised to 68 by 2046.

Just as importantly, the pensions of millions of women will be boosted because current regulations mean that many do not accumulate enough national insurance s to qualify for a full pension.

Consensus

There has been widespread support for the plans as outlined in the government’s recent White Paper.

The key thing is that this is long term stuff Richard Brooks, IPPR

“There is broad consensus for the re-indexation of the basic state pension with earnings, reasonable support for raising the state pension age, but less consensus for the model for the new personal accounts,” said Niki Cleal, director of the Pensions Policy Institute.

It is important to note that current pensioners will hardly be affected at all by the plans.

In fact, the younger you are the more important the changes are.

Richard Brooks, an associate director at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), said this was a big change in direction.

“The key thing is that this is long-term stuff,” he said.

“They are trying to rebuild the value of the state pension and stop the spread of means testing.”

Women

If the indexation of state pensions with earnings rather than inflation is combined, as planned, with a cut to 30 in the number of years of work or caring needed to qualify for a full state pension, the biggest winners will be women.

Women will have much to gain from pension reform, says the government

This is welcomed strongly by the trades union organisation, the TUC.

“I think the package is a very big deal - the most radical set of reforms for 50 years,” said Michelle Lewis, pensions officer of the TUC.

But she pointed out that trade unionists are still unhappy that the basic state retirement age will be raised progressively.

“We are still to be convinced that the state pension needs to be raised,” she said.

“Many of our members work in areas where they are pretty worn out by 65.”

Lord Turner

The government launched its earlier this year, in the wake of the proposals put forward by Lord Turner’s Pensions Commission.

Generally these plans are quite well thought through Matt Wakefield, IFS

But the government immediately raised some people’s suspicions that it would try to wriggle out of one of the main recommendations - that increases in the state pension should be linked to the rise in average earnings.

Back in May, the Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said a precise date for this would only be announced at the start of the next government and would be “subject to and the fiscal position”.

Since then several ministerial pronouncements have sought to reassure people that re-indexation really will come in, and by 2015 at the very latest.

But this verbal wrangle highlights a fundamental problem with any piece of long term .

“Generally these plans are quite well thought through,” said Matt Wakefield, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies,

“But this government can’t commit every government from now until 2050 to keep earnings indexation.”

National pensions savings scheme

One element that will not be included in the new legislation will be Lord Turner’s idea for a new national pensions savings scheme, or “personal accounts”, as the government likes to call them.

Lord Turner, architect of the government’s pensions reforms

This idea is going to be the subject of another White Paper in December and a further round of consultation.

This has been controversial with the private pensions industry hoping to get a slice of the business running such accounts for the state.

As currently proposed, all employers who do not currently pay into a pension scheme for their staff will have to start doing so.

Employers will pay 3% of salaries, employees will pay 4% and the government will contribute 1%.

There is a growing suspicion in some quarters though that this may lead to an example of the law of unintended .

The fear is other employers might cut their current, higher, level of pension contribution down to the minimum level required by the Personal Accounts system.

“I think with the NPSS it is almost defining the level of contribution the government thinks is acceptable,” said Ian Price, head of pensions at investment firm St. James’s Place.

“So what you could have is an employer saying ‘what I need to have is a scheme requiring a maximum contribution of 8% - if it’s good enough for the NPSS (an early name for Personal Accounts) why isn’t it good enough for us? ”

Many people are afraid of having their identity stolen or becoming a victim of bank card fraud.

But is it worth paying for fraud protection offered by banks and card firms?

Money Box Listener Karen from Hampshire recently received an offer from a company called Style Financial Services.

Free trial

If you didn’t cancel within 30 days they would bill your card directly for 80. Karen, Money Box listener

It provides store cards to several high street retailers.

The offer looked good at first glance because it offered a free trial but when Karen read on she wasn’t quite so sure about the value of service.

“I found that if you didn’t cancel within 30 days they would bill your card directly for 80 - but what else is involved?”

Anyone signing up to PrivacyGuard is promised a swift warning message and advice if it appears someone has stolen their ID, or is appearing to be carrying out a fraud on any of their accounts.

The alert comes direct from the credit checking agency Experian. In addition this ‘PrivacyGuard’ branded offer has some insurance added on for a cost of 79.99 a year.

Free advice

Mike Naylor, principal from the consumer organisation Which? believes such products aren’t very good value.

Free advice is readily available from banks and credit agencies to people who do fall victim to fraud. Mike Naylor, Which?

Mike points out that free advice is readily available from banks and credit agencies to people who do fall victim to fraud.

In addition, the 10,000 of insurance cover to clear your name and get your credit file sorted out is unlikely to be needed. He told Money Box

“I feel this is an example of banks playing on customers fears of fraud and selling insurance that isn’t really worth having”

Style Financial Services, which wrote to Karen, is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

In a statement to BBC Money Box, RBS and PrivacyGuard told the programme that they believe their offer is the most cover that people can buy in the UK.

Money Box has discovered that LloydsTSB is also starting to offer PrivacyGuard to some of its customers but at a higher cost - 6.99 a month, or nearly 84 a year.

The version of anti-fraud protection offered by Lloyds TSB doesn’t include the insurance element. So Lloyds is charging more, but offering less than the version RBS provides to its customers.

Cost-conscious consumers who are concerned about fraud can get a very similar credit checking service that is significantly cheaper direct from the credit reference agencies, Experian, Equifax and . Mike Naylor of Which? says

‘For most people an occasional check of their standard credit report should be sufficient to guard against fraud and that costs just 2 each time.’

Mike suggests getting a copy of your regular report once or twice a year.

BBC Radio 4’s Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 28 January, 2006, at 1204 GMT.

The programme will be repeated on Sunday, 29 January, 2006, at 1204 GMT.