The cynic in me speaks!! So....IDS has had a hissy fit and flounced off, ostensibly because he is not happy about the welfare reforms, which places him somewhere near the moral high ground. I suspect this is not the whole picture.
The new pension reforms which came under his remit come into forcé on 6th April. My husband will be affected by them, and we have been involved in numerous letters and telephone calls with IDS's Pensions Department over the last few months, all giving contradictory information, and conflicting advice, one of which would have cost us a few thousand pounds had we not investigated further, then received an admission that the advice they had given was totally incorrect, and not only would that money have been a complete waste, but we wouldn't have got it back.. The latest communication has been that "the staff in the Pensions Department don't understand themselves exactly how the new system is going to be applied, but hope to be in a better position to advise after the system has been implemented on 6th April. We should contact them further after that date, but in the meantime we should not rely on any information they have provided". So here we are..... 10 months before OH is eligible for his pension, being told that on 6th April, his previously confirmed 31 years of contributions in the UK will be slashed to 17, ( incidentally, that information is not volunteered, you have to find out for yourself) and the years of contributions in Spain, which also counted under the current system appear not to be recognised at all, and nobody is able to "reliably inform" him of what his pension will be.
Clearly, there will be many other people caught in this same position - the not knowing at this late stage is at least as bad as the knowledge that someone will be affected several years down the line, as it is too late to reassess and make other arrangements, so I very much suspect that the s..t will hit the fan big time from 6th April onwards. More and more people find themselves in this "no man's land", many not expecting it . (I have recently taken issue with Good Housekeeping over their article on Pension Reforms, which was totally misleading as they failed to mention that the method of calculating the years of contributions was changing as part of the new reforms - they have admitted to me that I "have a valid point and they will make this clear in a later issue of the mag") From IDS's point of view, to resign in a state of moral high dudgeon in the hope it will endear him to people will be far preferable to being held to account for the failings of his own department over the pensions omnishambles. which will be highlighted shortly. I think he has just grasped the opportunity to get out while the goings good, and an opportunity to do so showing him in a responsible light was just the right opportunity for him to grasp. Cynic .... moi?!!
Ian Duncan Smith resigns - well, there's a surprise!!
The new pension reforms which came under his remit come into forcé on 6th April. My husband will be affected by them, and we have been involved in numerous letters and telephone calls with IDS's Pensions Department over the last few months, all giving contradictory information, and conflicting advice, one of which would have cost us a few thousand pounds had we not investigated further, then received an admission that the advice they had given was totally incorrect, and not only would that money have been a complete waste, but we wouldn't have got it back.. The latest communication has been that "the staff in the Pensions Department don't understand themselves exactly how the new system is going to be applied, but hope to be in a better position to advise after the system has been implemented on 6th April. We should contact them further after that date, but in the meantime we should not rely on any information they have provided". So here we are..... 10 months before OH is eligible for his pension, being told that on 6th April, his previously confirmed 31 years of contributions in the UK will be slashed to 17, ( incidentally, that information is not volunteered, you have to find out for yourself) and the years of contributions in Spain, which also counted under the current system appear not to be recognised at all, and nobody is able to "reliably inform" him of what his pension will be.
Clearly, there will be many other people caught in this same position - the not knowing at this late stage is at least as bad as the knowledge that someone will be affected several years down the line, as it is too late to reassess and make other arrangements, so I very much suspect that the s..t will hit the fan big time from 6th April onwards. More and more people find themselves in this "no man's land", many not expecting it . (I have recently taken issue with Good Housekeeping over their article on Pension Reforms, which was totally misleading as they failed to mention that the method of calculating the years of contributions was changing as part of the new reforms - they have admitted to me that I "have a valid point and they will make this clear in a later issue of the mag") From IDS's point of view, to resign in a state of moral high dudgeon in the hope it will endear him to people will be far preferable to being held to account for the failings of his own department over the pensions omnishambles. which will be highlighted shortly. I think he has just grasped the opportunity to get out while the goings good, and an opportunity to do so showing him in a responsible light was just the right opportunity for him to grasp. Cynic .... moi?!!
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