Because of the danger that employees might lose their pensions if the schemes they had been contributing to ran out of funds, the Pension Protection Fund works by monitoring those pension funds which are likely to become insolvent. In order to enter the Pension Protection Fund, the pension scheme must be assessed for a period of one year, during what is known as the pension protection fund assessment, or PPF assessment. Either the scheme will be found to have sufficient assets left so as to be able to give members a reasonable return on their pension contributions, in which case the scheme can be left in the hands of independent trustees to be wound up, or the funds left over to be divided between members will fall below a specific amount.

Should the level of return which the scheme can make to members be less than that provided by the protection fund, the Board of the protection fund will assume responsibility for providing benefits to the members of the scheme. The benefits payable are related to retirement age, such that employees over the retirement age of 65 will receive the full amount of their pension, whereas those under retirement age are likely to receive a lower percentage, at a rate which is capped.

Although it may seem as though employers can rely on the ‘safety net’ of the Pension Protection Fund, the legislation deliberately guards against any such incentive by stipulating that employers must make compulsory contributions to pension schemes. The lower the contributions an employer makes to its scheme, the higher the premiums due to be paid into the protection fund.

From the point of view of individuals paying into pension funds, even though the protection scheme cannot provide full compensation for the value of a policy it does protect contributions up to a considerable value.

If the pension fund in question began to wind up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005 the applicable ‘safety net’ scheme would be the Financial Assistance Scheme. This is administered by the Pension Protection Fund, and operated in much the same way, but is for schemes which began to be wound up before the PPF model was brought in by Parliament in 2005. Again, in cases where there was not enough money to pay members’ benefits, such that a pension fund became underfunded, or where the company in question became insolvent, compensation is paid through the Financial Assistance Scheme by way of compensating those who would otherwise have made contributions for no return.

With any luck if you are in a pension plan either personally or through your company, if it has been running long enough you might just fulfill your ambitions of having a comfortable retirement, but that will not be the case for the majority.

As a race us Brits have long looked at the property we own as something to be passed on to our children when we die, but with recent events more people are looking at using their property to subsidise their own life after retirement from work.

Safe Home Income Plans (SHIP) is the UK trade body for Equity Release product providers and they have been lobbying and campaigning for more acceptance of their products in the financial market place for some time following adverse publicity towards the product in its early form.

Things have certainly moved on and with the current market unlikely to fulfill our pension dreams, equity release does offer an alternative form of funding our retirement to avoid this period in our lives becoming a complete nightmare.

In the third quarter of 2010, SHIP have reported a 4% growth in sales from their providers, the largest quarter on quarter growth since 2008.

Andrea Rozario, Director General of SHIP said:

“The equity release market has returned to growth with the largest quarter on quarter increase since mid-2008.   The financial services industry has had a tough couple of years and this move clearly illustrates increased customer demand.    It also shows that the work undertaken by SHIP – and its members – to increase the wider acceptance of this product range is having an impact.

“It is interesting to note the swing from lump sum mortgages being the most popular product to drawdown dominating the market.  This reflects the change in the type and number of providers as well as consumers attitudes to borrowing.  With the current economic turmoil and resulting consumer uncertainty, many consumers favour drawdown mortgages which allow them to gradually access the equity in their homes.  The sales of reversion mortgages have also increased.

“This quarter’s figures provide us with a strong platform for growth in the remainder of 2010 and a firm foundation on which to expand the market in 2011.   In addition, the cuts announced in the recent spending review will hit all sectors of the population and may lead to more people seriously considering equity release.”

We all know that having credits card in our possession can make life immensely easier, especially if they are interest free credit cards. Rather than always having to carry cash or waiting until payday to purchase the things we need in our lives today, paying under a credit agreement from a lending body proves to be a convenience time and time again.

Using a credit card has only become a greater convenience with the explosion of services and products available for purchase online, too. As more and more companies offer home delivery options, it can feel as though with credit cards, we’ll never have to leave the house again! Whether you’re shopping for your groceries, using an online auction site, purchasing clothes or even buying an insurance policy, however, it is important to be careful as you go through each and every one of your online buys.

It is a sad truth, but just as the Internet has made it easier for us to shop online, it has also made it easier for hackers and scam artists to take advantage of our personal information. This can lead to everything from receiving spam emails and viruses to more extreme cases of unauthorised credit card charges, fraud and identity theft.

We have all heard the facts and statistics about how identity theft is on the rise in Britain. Recently, for example, the Daily Mail reported that the average Internet credit card fraud incident has reached upwards of £500 per person per year. From this, we can gauge that the problem is a serious one. If you do not take some simple precautions to make sure that you use your credit card safely on the web, it will likely only be a matter of time before you have credit fraud committed against you.

While it may seem rather obvious, always make sure that you know where your credit cards are. In the event that they get lost or stolen, call your bank or lending body immediately to close the account and cancel your cards. This way, even if someone is in possession of your cards, they will not be able to steal any money from you.

On top of this, it’s a good idea to keep track of the balances on all your credit cards every day. While it may seem like a nuisance, this measure will not only help you to ensure that no one is getting into your accounts, but it will also allow you to monitor what you are spending so you can figure out your finances accordingly.

Another thing to consider is that if you are shopping online, you should always make sure the site you are making a purchase from is a secure website. If you do not see an icon with a lock symbol on the browser page, it may not be a smart idea to carry on with the purchase.

Most of the time, however, you will really just have to rely on your common sense. Remember that no banks or lending bodies will ever ask you for your information via email, so if you get any messages requesting details, mark them off as spam and move on. Additionally, if something looks too good to be true, chances are that it is. Do not be fooled by pop-ups which promise you ways to get rich quick, for instance.

When it comes to online commerce, listen to your intuition. If you have a bad feeling about the website you want to make a purchase from, go with your gut and do not supply the site with any of your personal information or your credit card number.

It is important to be aware of the dangers you may face when making purchases over the web and in everyday life. If you are able to exercise a certain amount of caution, use common sense and remain aware of what you are doing, however, you will put yourself in a much lower category of risk.

Restrictions put in place by the financial institutions to make the business of borrowing money may have been eased slightly, but too late in many cases to help the many businesses that demanded help a year or more ago.

The government’s may have saved the high street banks, but in doing so left many business of all sizes having to fend for themselves. The results of this are still clear to see with news of job losses around the whole of Europe almost on a daily basis.

The fact is that none of us are safe from the constant talk of job losses and redundancies and many have already adjusted to living on a more frugal budget as they do not know if they will be next.

There are many amongst us who use our credit cards on a daily basis and have built up a balance that is becoming a struggle to deal with. In the past it was easy to transfer outstanding balances to another card offering zero interest for a given period, giving some reprieve to the borrower who could make plans to clear the debt without incurring further charges.

These zero percent offerings are almost a thing of the past in today’s climate, but there are still some low APR credit card offers around. The Republic of Ireland’s third largest credit card provider MBNA  for instance are currently offering zero per cent on transfers to their Platinum Card for a period of the first ten months.

The Platinum card is one of a range of credit cards that are acceptable in over 29 million retail outlets and 1.2 million ATMs around the world, making it one of the best credit card deals in Ireland right now.

the co-op

Mutual retailer, the Co-operative Group has today announced that it is prepared to fight like for like with the UK’s top supermarket chains for a share of the public festive season spend, by introducing price cuts and savings that they say are worth £200 million customers.

As the silly season is practically upon us the Co-op has stepped out of the shadows of some of its bigger rivals following recent proposals from Tesco to offer customers savings of £250 million over the Christmas period and rival Asda predicting the most competitive Christmas for a decade.

As well as cutting prices Co-op has another string to its bow for customers by including their first ever triple dividend payment.

Normally Co-op members earn one point for every pound spent in food stores and each year the value of a membership point is determined by how much profit the group makes.

For the last annual payment, the value of a point was set at 2 pence. On this basis, a triple dividend would be worth 6 pence in the pound.

The actual figure from the Insolvency Service recorded 35,242 people in England and Wales were declared insolvent, a 28% increase on the same period last year.

It represents the highest figure since records began in 1960 and there appears to be no let up as figures will only rise as unemployment continues to increase.

Anthony Cork, director at accountants Wilkins Kennedy, said;

“Those who have already suffered job losses are just beginning to be represented in these figures but there are many more behind them who are still battling to weather the storm.  Historically unemployment has continued to rise even as the economy begins to recover, and this means that personal insolvencies can only soar even further. Things are likely to become very bloody indeed.”

Some good news is that company insolvencies fell by almost 10% in the period, with 1,300 businesses suffering compulsory liquidation, with a further 1,578 in the first stages of the winding up process.

With the current state of the economy it would not be a surprise to see the figures reach even higher levels in the new year as many businesses and individuals over stretch themselves in the Christmas period.

traditional pawnbroker sign

The UK’s biggest pawnbroker, H&T which has over 120 branches across the country has said the business is trading well ahead of expectations as cash strapped Britons continue to trade in their valuables for cash.

H&T have opened 56 new outlets in shopping centres across the UK over the last year, recognising the growing recession fuelled surge in demand for their services. The company are planning a further twelve shops in the coming months.

The pawnbroker chain deals almost exclusively in gold and diamond set jewellery and say they have ‘benefited considerably’ since June 2009 with higher Gold purchasing volumes.

H&T which started out in 1897 as Harvey & Thompson with a shop in London’s Vauxhall Bridge Road, says that the current trend may not be sustainable and has therefore taken premises on short term leasing.

The number of pawn broker outlets in the UK has risen by 25% to over a 1,000 in the last five years.

While money and finance are still among the most popular areas that visitors are looking at to make savings, the MoneySupermarket site offers a whole lot more with listings for insurance products, utilities and all the best deals for electrical items such as the latest Playstation 3 Slim.

The people at MoneySupermarket are interested to know what people do with the money they have saved after visiting the website and have launched a competition challenging customers to make a short video to demonstrate how they spent the savings they made.

As an example, watch the video to see how one customer chose to use the money that she had saved by buying her pet dog Benson a Batman outfit!

The competition is called Let’s Have The Savings and the video that receives the most views will win a cash prize of £500. Entry is free and details can be found at Let’s Have The Savings, where you will also find the posts of the latest video entries.

It is all a bit of fun, so if you can make a funny video using the strapline ‘Let’s Have The Savings’ you will be in with a chance of the £500 prize money.

Sainsbury currently leads the way with the announcement that it will create 2,300 new jobs in the north of England and Scotland by the summer of 2010. The third biggest UK supermarket group now says it is expecting to create around 20,000 seasonal jobs over Christmas and the New Year.

The figure represents a huge increase on the 12,000 seasonal workers that Sainsbury employed last year and is the biggest such hiring campaign that the company has conducted. The company expects to retain at least 1,000 of the temporary staff on a full time basis.

Tesco recently announced that it would be creating 800 jobs when it expands it’s Financial Service division in Scotland and Morrisons said earlier this month that it too would be creating new vacancies this year with 7,000 new jobs- up 40% from it’s original target.

bovis homes group

The UK’s Bovis Home Group have seen an increase in reservations for new homes in the first half of the year, but still see no signs of stability in the housing market.

Private reservations increased by 92% during the period up to June 2009 compared to the same period last year, but still amounts to just 901 homes reserved. Private completions rose by 18% but was offset by decline in social housing completions.

Completed sales fell by 11% to 754 homes accompanied by a fall in net sales prices of 18% reducing turnover, margins and gross profits.

“Activity has to increase before we can start to think about the housing market in general becoming a more stable place,” says Bovis CEO David Ritchie, although the company are bouyant enough to go into the second half of the year looking for development land and expect to meet it’s full year volume targets of 1,800 units, ‘if activity continues at the same rate.’