Pensions Guide: State Pensions

Pensions Guide: State Pensions

By Benedict Rohan

The most important financial decisions youre likely to make in your life are those concerning your retirement. To have a secure future with a comfortable standard of living after youve stopped working, youll need to plan your finances carefully.

Pensions are becoming more and more important as people now live longer into their retirement. Lifestyles have also changed people often take out mortgages later in life than they used to, meaning that they may still have a mortgage to repay when they stop working. And as people are experiencing better health and longer retirements, they want to have a reasonable disposable income in order to enjoy more leisure activities in their later years.

This is the first of two guides outlining the fundamentals of pensions. Itll help you understand more about state pensions and how they are calculated. The second guide focuses on private pension schemes. These articles do not constitute financial advice and should only be used as an introductory informational guide to pensions. For advice on how to plan your finances for your future, seek professional advice from an independent financial advisor.

Definition

First, back to basics what is a pension? Its a regular source of tax-free income for you to live on when you retire. As contributions towards your pension fund during your working life also receive tax relief, its a more tax-efficient than other methods of saving.

The government department responsible for managing and administering state pensions and other pensions related benefits is The Pension Service, which is part of the Department of Work and Pensions.

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State pension

The government provides a state pension, which can be claimed by men over the age of 65 and women over the age of 60 (although this will increase to 65 in line with the male pension age by 2020).

Not everyone qualifies for a state pension, and even those who do will receive different incomes depending on their working history. Entitlement is calculated according to the number of national insurance contributions (NICs) you (or your partner/spouse) have paid, which are converted into qualifying years. Youll need to have worked and paid contributions for around 90% of your adult working life in order to receive the full state pension. If youve been out of work for long periods in order to bring up a family or look after someone, youll be compensated for missing NICs through Home Responsibilities Protection. If youve been out of work for other reasons and have been claiming benefits such as jobseekers allowance, or income support, the government will have paid your NICs on your behalf for the period(s) in which you claimed benefit. The minimum you need to get the basic state pension is 25% of the qualifying years. If you have anywhere between the minimum and maximum amount of qualifying years, the amount you receive in your state pension will be adjusted in relation to how many qualifying years you have, so the more you have, the better. Those who have less than 25% of qualifying years wont be able to claim any state pension at all, although there are other government pension benefits to assist those on low incomes in retirement, such as pension credits or the Over 80 pension.

Additional state pension schemes

In addition to the basic state pension, the government has a top-up scheme to enable people to increase the amount of pension income they receive.

SERPS (State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme)

Until April 2002, SERPS was the governments second pension scheme, which allowed anyone earning more than 75 per week to make additional NICs. The level of NICs paid was earnings-related. However, the government deemed SERPS unfair on people with low incomes and those with big gaps in their employment history, so it was crapped and replaced with the Second State Pension in 2002 with the aim of allowing everyone to save more for their retirement.

SERPS gave the option of contracting out, which could be done for one of two reasons: in order not to pay the additional NICs, or to put the additional NICs towards a private pension fund.

Second State Pension

People who were paying into SERPS will now be paying into the second state pension and may therefore receive their additional state pension from two different sources when they retire.

The Second State Pension is still linked to earnings. However, its calculated in a way that provides better support to those on low incomes, or people who dont have constant work because of illness or disability. In these cases, the government tops up their credits to a flat rate of 12,100, so they will receive NICs as if they had earned an annual salary up to this amount.

As with SERPS, its possible to contract out of the Second State Pension, either to stop paying the additional NICs or to put them towards your own pension fund.

Finding out how much your state benefits are worth

To help you plan your savings towards your retirement, the government offers state pension forecasts to let you see how much youll be likely to receive as retirement income. Visit the Government Pensions Service website for more information (www.thepensionservice.gov.uk).

About the Author: Benedict Rohan

Website: mortgagenation.co.uk

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Tornado kills 19 in Florida

Saturday, February 3, 2007

At least 19 people have been killed in central Florida in the city of Lady Lake and Paisley after severe storms and a tornado ripped through the cities in the middle of the night. Eleven of those killed were in Paisley and three were in Lady Lake.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue crews resume tomorrow morning.

Volusia, Sumter, Lake and Seminole counties have all been declared a state of an emergency as dozens of houses, mobile homes and a church were destroyed. Clothes and furniture are scattered around the wrecked houses and pieces of trees are scattered about. Cars are reported to have been turned over or thrown around in the air.

“Our priority today is search and rescue,” said Gov. of Florida, Charlie Crist. Rescuers are still looking through the wreckage to find survivors of those who might have been killed.

A spokeman for the emergency response team of Lake county, Chris Patton calls the damage “devastating” and worse than “hurricanes in 2004.”

“We have complete devastation of homes, of businesses, religious institutions. It was unlike even perhaps the hurricanes of 2004 when we had minor roof damage, screen damage, pool damage. This is way far more devastating,” said Patton.

The storms hit at about 3:15 [EST] a.m. on Friday morning. At least 20,000-30,000 people are without power.

Gunman killed outside Colorado governor’s office

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A man identified as Aaron Richard Snyder showed up on Monday around 2:25 p.m. outside the Colorado Capitol offices of Governor Bill Ritter. He was carrying a 357-caliber 7 shot Smith and Wesson revolver with 20 extra rounds of ammunition and started screaming “I am the emperor” and “I am here to take over the state”.

When he was confronted by a Colorado State trooper, Snyder opened his jacket showing that he was carrying a gun. The trooper ordered Snyder to drop the gun, but instead he moved “menancingly” in the direction of the trooper who then shot him once in the head and twice in the chest.

Snyder died from the multiple gunshot wounds on the floor of the Capitol office building. The Capitol went on a full lockdown with employees, tour groups and visitors in the building at the time ordered to stay where they were.

Governor Ritter was interviewing a judge candidate in his office at the time of the shooting. He held a press conference on the Capitol step two hours later.

Mr. Snyder was under doctors care for delusional behavior. The Northglenn, Colorado police issued a BOL “Be On the Lookout” to all law enforcement agencies in Colorado for Snyder and his car, a 2004 black Kia, around 25 minutes before the shooting occurred.

Pakistan: At least 18 killed, others wounded in suicide attack at Balochistan Sufi shrine

Sunday, October 8, 2017

According to varying reports, at least eighteen people were killed and at least 20 were injured in a suicide attack at Fateh Pur shrine in Jhal Magsi district, located in Pakistan’s western province of Balochistan on Thursday.

Devotees had gathered at the shrine, built in honour of Saint Pir Rakhel Shah, for the annual anniversary ritual. A policeman reportedly stopped the attacker at the gate of shrine before the attacker detonated the bomb. Local official Asad Kakar said, “Suicide bomber struck outside the shrine at the time it was packed with people”. The militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack via the Amaq News Agency.

There have been several other attacks on Sufi shrines. In February, about 80 people were killed in a suicide attack in Lal Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine in Sehwan, a town in Sindh province. About 50 people were killed in another attack on the shrine of Shah Noorani, located in Hub, Balochistan, on November 12, 2016. ISIL claimed responsibility for both.

Florida man charged with stealing Wi-Fi

Update since publication

This article mentions that Wi-Fi stands for “Wireless Fidelity”, although this is disputed.

Thursday, July 7, 2005

A Florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Internet access point without permission. Benjamin Smith III, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the United States.

This kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (WAPs). Unauthorized users range from casual Web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours.

According to Richard Dinon, owner of the WAP Smith allegedly broke into, Smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside Dinon’s residence.

There are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users. Dinon reportedly knew how to take these steps, but had not bothered because his “neighbors are older.”

Police report drug haul seizure worth up to £30 million in Brownhills, England

Monday, December 2, 2013

Police in the West Midlands in England today said nearly 200 kilograms worth of drugs with value possibly as great as £30 million (about US$49 million or €36 million) has been seized from a unit in the town of Brownhills. In what an officer described as “one of the largest [seizures] in the force’s 39 year history”, West Midlands Police reported recovering six big cellophane-wrapped cardboard boxes containing cannabis, cocaine, and MDMA (“ecstasy”) in a police raid operation on the Maybrook Industrial Estate in the town on Wednesday.

The impact this seizure will have on drug dealing in the region and the UK as a whole cannot be underestimated

The seized boxes, which had been loaded onto five freight pallets, contained 120 one-kilogram bags of cannabis, 50 one-kilogram bags of MDMA, and five one-kilogram bricks of cocaine. In a press release, West Midlands Police described what happened after officers found the drugs as they were being unloaded in the operation. “When officers opened the boxes they discovered a deep layer of protective foam chips beneath which the drugs were carefully layered”, the force said. “All the drugs were wrapped in thick plastic bags taped closed with the cannabis vacuum packed to prevent its distinctive pungent aroma from drawing unwanted attention.” Police moved the drugs via forklift truck to a flatbed lorry to remove them.

Detective Sergeant Carl Russell of West Midlands Police’s Force CID said the seizure was the largest he had ever made in the 24 years he has been in West Midlands Police and one of the biggest seizures the force has made since its formation in 1974. “The impact this seizure will have on drug dealing in the region and the UK as a whole cannot be underestimated”, he said. “The drugs had almost certainly been packed to order ready for shipping within Britain but possibly even further afield. Our operation will have a national effect and we are working closely with a range of law enforcement agencies to identify those involved in this crime at whatever level.”

Expert testing on the drugs is ongoing. Estimates described as “conservative” suggest the value of the drugs amounts to £10 million (about US$16.4 million or €12 million), although they could be worth as much as £30 million, subject to purity tests, police said.

Police arrested three men at the unit on suspicion of supplying a controlled drug. The men, a 50-year-old from Brownhills, a 51-year-old from the Norton area of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and one aged 53 from Brownhills, have been released on bail as police investigations to “hunt those responsible” continue. West Midlands Police told Wikinews no person has yet been charged in connection with the seizure. Supplying a controlled drug is an imprisonable offence in England, although length of jail sentences vary according to the class and quantity of drugs and the significance of offenders’ roles in committing the crime.

Five police officers killed in Dallas, Texas during sniper attack

Sunday, July 10, 2016

On Thursday, five police officers were killed and seven were injured after a sniper attacked a public protest march in downtown Dallas, Texas. Sources indicate at least three other people were taken into custody for questioning relating to the attack. The march was held to protest the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota during engagements with police officers.

Police identified 25-year-old Micah Johnson as the suspect. Johnson had previously served in the US army, and police reported he said he wanted to exact revenge upon police officers after news of Sterling and Castile’s deaths. Ammunition and weapons were found inside Johnson’s home. Dallas Police reported the policemen were shot at from a height. Officials said two civilians were also injured in the attack.

Micah Johnson served for the United States Army Reserve from 2009 until early 2015, including a tour of Afghanistan. Johnson had no criminal record. His attack was reported to be a lone mission.

After the attack earlier on Thursday, police killed Micah Johnson in El Centro College’s parking lot by a bomb explosion.

Hillary Clinton, 2016 United States presidential election candidate and favorite for the Democratic nomination this July, said, “There is too much violence, too much hate, too much senseless killing, too many people dead who shouldn’t be. No-one has all the answers. We have to find them together.”

After Johnson was killed, Mike Rawlings, Dallas’ mayor, said “We believe now the city is safe”.

Dorothy’s dress from Wizard of Oz sells for £140,000

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

The auction hammer came down Wednesday, in London, on Judy Garland’s blue gingham dress, worn in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz.” It sold for £140,000 (about US$262,157.40).

The identity of the buyer, who sealed the deal on the telephone, was not immediately revealed. Bonham auctioneers told reporters there was a pre-sale estimate of £35,000 (about US$65,529.47).

The dress, one of the most recognizable in the movie world, was made for the 17-year-old Garland who had a 27-inch (68-centimetre) waist. Her name is still on a tag on an inside hem. It was auctioned as part of a sale of rock and film memorabilia and was described as a “cherished memory for millions of fans worldwide.”

The story of the “Wizard of Oz,” which sealed Garland’s legend as a worldwide star, tells the story of a young Kansan, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog Toto. They are whisked away from their rural Kansas home by a tornado to a magical realm called OZ.

In their travels, they meet other now-famous characters, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.

Although the film started with only modest success, it has since become a screen classic.

News briefs:June 9, 2010

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New Jersey Governor hospitalized after car crash

Friday, April 13, 2007

The Governor of New Jersey Jon S. Corzine was hospitalized Thursday after the vehicle he was riding in crashed into a guardrail on Garden State Parkway. The Governor was on his way to a meeting between the Rutgers University basketball team and radio personality Don Imus.

Corzine was riding in the front passenger seat when a red pickup truck drifted onto the shoulder. As the truck corrected itself, a white pickup swerved to avoid it, hitting the motorcade SUV he was riding. Corzine suffered six broken ribs, a broken collarbone, broken sternum, fracture of his lower vertebrae, a broken leg, and a head gash. He is in stable condition following surgery at Cooper University Hospital, but will require more surgery to repair a broken femur that broke through the skin. The trooper driving the vehicle suffered minor injuries.

Senate President Richard Codey will serve as governor while Corzine is in the hospital. An aide to Corzine said he was not wearing a seat belt.