Are Your Pensions at Risk? – with Tom McPhail
5/6/202631 min
If you’ve got a pension, chances are big changes are coming - whether you realise it or not.
From a brand new pensions bill to debates over the future of the triple lock, and even changes to salary sacrifice, the UK pensions landscape is shifting fast.
In this episode of Investing Unlocked Extra, Georgie Frost speaks with pensions expert and Times columnist Tom McPhail about what’s changing, what it means for your retirement, and what you should actually be paying attention to.
They also explore the growing tension between government control and individual choice, why trust in the system matters more than ever, and the simple steps people can take to stay on track.
In this episode, we explore:
- What the new pensions bill actually means for savers
- Why the government wants “fewer, bigger, better” pension schemes
- The controversy around the government’s proposed investment powers
- What the triple lock is - and why its future is under threat
- How changes to salary sacrifice could affect higher earners
- Why many people are losing trust in pensions and investing
- What younger generations are really up against financially
- The simple steps you can take now to build a stronger retirement plan
- If you’re unsure what all these changes mean for you - or whether you’re doing enough for retirement - this episode breaks it down in a way that actually makes sense.
Thank you to our sponsor PensionBee - a leading online pension provider who is on a mission to build pension confidence so that you can enjoy a happy retirement. With PensionBee, you can manage your pension savings with ease and can combine and contribute all from one app. If you're over the age of 55 (rising to 57 from 2028) you can start making pension withdrawals with ease and in a way that suits you.
PensionBee’s website and award-winning app make retirement planning simple with helpful tools like a Pension Calculator, blogs, videos and a monthly podcast - The Pension Confident Podcast.
Take control of your retirement today with PensionBee. When investing, your capital is at risk.
Guest
Tom McPhail
Pensions Expert & Times Columnist
https://www.thetimes.com/profile/tom-mcphail
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-mcphail-9260a624/
X (Twitter): @PensionsMonkey
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Georgie Frost
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LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/georgie-frost-a1b090110
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsGeorgie Frost· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome back to Investing Unlocked Extra, sponsored by PensionBee. I'm Georgie Frost. Now, from arguments over whether the government should have a say over how our pensions are invested, to the passing of a new pensions bill, renewed focus on salary sacrifice, and more questions over the future of the triple lock. A week is a long time in pensions. Well, joining me to break it all down is pensions expert and Times columnist Tom McPhail. Tom, it is an exciting time to be a pensions expert. But let's talk about the pensions bill. It's now passed into law, but it almost didn't. We'll get to that in a minute. But top line, what does it mean for us?
Tom McPhail· Guest0:45
So this is the government taking on work that a lot of it had been, the groundwork had been laid by the previous government, but- Mm-hmm ... th- if I had to ca- summarize it in one phrase, it'd be fewer, bigger, better run pension schemes. So what the government's saying is, "Look, we need to tidy up the whole pensions industry. All the reforms that have happened over the last 20 years, great. We need to kind of bring it together now, tie some knots off," and in the end, what that will mean is the pension schemes you're saving into will deliver better investment returns, they'll have lower charges, they'll be better run. So at a personal level, you just keep paying your money in, and at the other end- Mm-hmm ... you'll get a pension, but maybe you'll get a slightly bigger pension as a result of all these tidying up reforms we're doing now. That's kind