September news from Christina Clegg – financial adviser for pensioners

September news from Christina Clegg – financial adviser for pensioners:

• HMRC are warning people to be on their guard for tax refund scams. Over 170,000 scams were reported last year with nearly 50,000 reporting fake self-assessment scams. Often demanding immediate payment for overdue tax and asking for bank details. As always please be on your guard.
• In addition, the Financial Conduct Authority reported over 5,000 scams. Many claiming that the FCA could help them recover money already lost in other scams.
• A financial adviser for pensioners is often needed to make sure the right amount of tax is being paid on pensions. Last year HMRC made over 60,000 tax refunds on pensions, up 20% of the year before. Something to watch out for.
• There are now more than 15,000 people over 100 in the UK. The number of people over 90 has now topped 500,000. Let’s hope they’ve all had a good financial adviser for pensioners.
• A new Pension Attention campaign has been launched by the industry featuring Ross Kemp.
• Hargreaves Lansdown found that almost 40% of people say that they want a guaranteed income in retirement. Christina can help with that.
• House prices have increased by 2.5% so far this year with the average house price now £299,331.
• Over £18 billion was withdrawn in 2024/25 in tax free lump sums. Up a massive 60% on the year before. The increase was driven by fears over what Labour would do in the last budget. Expect the same again leading up to the November budget again fueled by speculation that the Chancellor will target pensions to raise taxes.
• Pat McFadden has been appointed as the new Work and Pensions secretary.
• Hargreaves Lansdown has revealed plans to allow investors to buy into private capital markets for the first time. Including Long Term Asset Funds. Some advisers are concerned that these are high risk investments which shouldn’t be available to the general public without advice.
• The FCA has charged three people with the crime of communicating an invitation to engage in an investment activity without authorisation. The people used their online profiles to promote investments in unregulated and high-risk contracts for difference. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
• The UK economy failed to grow at all in July. On the plus side it didn’t contract either.
• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has estimated that state pensions will rise by 4.7% under the Triple Lock guarantee. That’s great news for pensioners, but with 0% growth in the economy questions are being asked about whether this is affordable.
• At this forecast rate, all pensioners will need to pay income tax by 2027 because their pensions will be above the £12,570 income tax threshold.
• Inflation remained at 3.8% in August.
• HMRC have released the ISA figures for the 2023/24 tax year.
• Money into Cash ISA’s increased by a massive 67% to almost £70 billion and increase in the number of investors by 25% to almost 10 million people.
• In total £103 billion was paid into ISA’s.
• The Bank of England held base rate at 4.0%
• HMRC has issued a warning to people who are thinking of taking their tax-free lump sums ahead of the budget. They have said that withdrawals cannot be reversed once they have been requested and processed. Some pension providers offer a 30 days cooling off period, but HMRC have said that this cannot apply to tax free cash withdrawals. It seems this is to prevent people trying to hedge their bets ahead of the budget.

Get more information.

If you need a financial adviser for pensioners then why not contact Christina today. We offer a free initial meeting to discuss your requirements and explain how our service works. You are under no obligation to use us after that if you don’t want to and we won’t pester you.

So why not call us today on 01282 614444 or e mail us enquiries@ccfps.co.uk or use our contact form online.