The subject of pensions is not easy to follow for most people but it can have a profound impact on the quality of our lives in retirement.
Our state pensions are simply paid by National Insurance contributions taken from people in employment. There is no state pension fund.
With the dramatic increase in ‘baby boomer’ pensioners and a shrinking working population, this is putting the state pension under strain, as well as the NHS. Workplace pensions, proper pension funds, are becoming vital to ensure people are not living in poverty when they retire. As your employer also has to pay into these funds they are not to be ignored!
Workplace pensions set up proper funds for each person managed by a number of fund managers. This is going to be the way forward for ‘state’ pensions which are a vital top up to company pensions.
Pension decisions made in our 20’s and 30’s now have a major impact on our quality of life in retirement.
Meanwhile those who retired pre 1997 have no automatic updates for inflation and post 97 retirees have a maximum increase of 5% irrespective of the current inflation rate.
And, in 2025, the Chancellor is desperate to raise money to pay for an increasingly expensive social welfare system and has eyes on your pension and savings
This page brings you articles, opinions and explainers about what is happening in the pensions world today.
Any views they express do not necessarily reflect the views of either the company or the CUKPA but are here to keep you informed in the ongoing debate.
If you see any interesting articles feel free to bring them to our attention via the Contact page
As you may well be aware the Pension Schemes Bill 2025 has now been passed in Parliament and as such it is now the Pensions Schemes Act 2026. Our attempts to get something into it regarding regular annual increases for pre-1997 service were dismissed by the Government despite support from…
Luke Akehurst MP for North Durham, takes up the cudgel on pre-1997 pensions. Pressure is mounting on the Government to put right the wrongs of the 1995 Pension Act. Here is an extract from his article which can be found here “Alongside colleagues, I have written to Ministers calling for…
It’s been a while since my last update in November but CUKPA has continued to be very active. 4 different letters have now been sent by a large number of you. I have been copied in on around 200 responses but hopefully there were a lot more sent on which…
The state pension has to go up with average earnings by law – unless the Government were to change this. “Pensioners will get more money next year thanks to our commitment to the triple lock.” This is the post that Chancellor Rachel Reeves made on social media platform X this…
In the Autumn Budget the Government extended increases for inflation to those in the Pension Protection Fund (PPF – funds from defunct companies taken over by the Government). This is very welcome. However, those of us in Defined Benefit schemes are still not guaranteed increases on our pre-1997 contributions. The…
11 November 2025 Updated 12 November 2025 A decision to reject compensation for women hit by changes to the state pension age will be reconsidered by the government. Campaigners say 3.6 million women born in the 1950s were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age to bring…
