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This unique book represents the first multi-disciplinary examination of ageing, covering everything from basic cell biology, to social participation in later life, to the representations of old age in the arts and literature. A comprehensive introductory text about the latest scientific evidence on ageing, the book draws on the pioneering New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, the UK’s largest research programme in ageing. This programme brought together leading academics from across the arts and humanities, social and biological sciences and fields of engineering and medical research, to study how ageing is changing and the ways in which this process can be made more beneficial to both individuals and society. Comprising individual, local, national and global perspectives, this book will appeal to everyone with an interest in one of the greatest challenges facing the world – our own ageing.
For auto-enrolment to continue to work successfully, NEST must be allowed to thrive. Employers want simplicity. They want to be able to choose one pension scheme to cover all their employees. The cap on annual contributions to NEST means that employers can't opt for NEST for their higher-earners or if they want to make more generous contributions. So some employers are dismissing the NEST option and choosing a private pension provider who can offer a scheme for all their employees. NEST is required to be a low-cost scheme and to offer good value. Other pension providers don't have this same obligation. There is therefore a risk that the restrictions will mean some employees are prevented fro...
The introduction of auto-enrolment makes rigorous pension scheme governance essential. This Report calls on the Government to reassess the case for establishing one body with sole responsibility for regulating workplace pensions. There are concerns over current gaps in regulation and the potential for further gaps to arise as a result of now having three regulators, the Pensions Regulator; and the new Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, set up to replace the FSA. The Report argues that a single regulator is necessary to ensure that all members of workplace pension schemes are adequately and consistently protected. It also highlights that deferred-member charges a...
The Work Programme has the potential to work well for relatively mainstream jobseekers but is unlikely to reach the most disadvantaged long-term unemployed people. The Government spent some £248 million less on the Work Programme than anticipated in 2012/13, due to providers' under-performance in a "payment-by-results" programme. In the short term, the Committee urges the Government to use the unspent Work Programme budget to: extend proven, alternative provision for disadvantaged jobseekers, such as the Work Choice programme for disabled people; extend and continue to promote Access to Work to help disabled people overcome the practical difficulties of starting a job; and provide further s...
This report welcomes the improvements in retirement income that the new Single-tier State Pension will bring. However, the key to the policy's successful implementation lies in the Government informing the public as soon as possible about how it will affect individuals. The Committee criticises the Government for hampering its scrutiny of the proposals. The Government not only imposed an extremely tight timetable, but brought forward the implementation date by a year, after the Committee had completed taking evidence. The Committee says that the Government must work with them to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible and that Defined Benefit pension schemes do not suffer as a result....
The Universal Credit pilots (Pathfinders) will begin in the north west of England in April 2013 and full national roll-out is due to start in October 2013. The Government has designed a welfare system which should help ease the transition from benefits to work, but significant concerns remain about the potential impact of the changes on some of the most vulnerable benefit claimants, especially the online claims system and the proposed single monthly payment. The Government needs to reflect on its ambitious implementation timetable. Under Universal Credit, payments to cover the costs of rent will go to the benefit claimant, rather than direct to the landlord. This is a major change and the Co...
Reforms to the support provided for housing costs - including the Social Sector Size Criteria (SSSC) (also known as the "Bedroom Tax" and the "Spare Room Subsidy") and the household Benefit Cap are causing financial hardship to vulnerable people who were not the intended targets of the reforms and are unlikely to be able to change their circumstances in response. The SSSC is having a particular impact on people with disabilities who have adapted homes or need a room to hold medical equipment or to accommodate a carer. Anybody living in a home that has been significantly adapted for them should be exempt from the SSSC and all recipients of Carers Allowance where the carer lives with the disab...
There remains worrying uncertainty about the new Universal Credit (UC) IT system. This includes how it will work, how much it will cost, and who will develop it. National roll-out of UC was due to begin in October 2013. But problems with IT systems meant that major changes to the implementation timetable were made in July and then again in December 2013. Currently, UC claims are still limited to 10 Pathfinder Jobcentres. New claims are not expected to be extended to the whole of Great Britain until 2016; and the bulk of existing claimants will not move over to UC until 2016-17. Only 4,280 people were claiming Universal Credit by December 2013 and the majority of these claims were of the simp...
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