The unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent of the economically active population for January to March 2012, down 0.2 on the quarter.

The inactivity rate for those aged from 16 to 64 was 23 per cent, down 0.1 on the quarter. There were 9.25 million economically inactive people aged from 16 to 64, down 35,000 on the quarter.

16 May 2012 9:59 am | By Chris Salih http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/regulation/uk-unemployment-falls-by-45000/10 51461.article

Santander Corporate Banking commissioned the Breakthrough Growth Champions Report, which examined growth patterns among businesses with turnovers between £500,000 and £10m.

The document found that around 4% or 131 ‘fast growth’ businesses created 3,283 jobs during the difficult trading period of 2007-2010 and have had a significantly higher economic impact on Northern Ireland than the rest of the region’s small and medium-sized business (SME) population.

Characteristics commonly held by such companies strong teamwork and relationships, youthful leadership, high levels of ambition and directors with a history of entrepreneurial success.

Tracking such characteristics has also helped identify firms with a higher probability of achieving growth in net worth, sales and employment – of which there are 69 currently in Northern Ireland.

The highest performing sectors were in social work (14.7%), complementary medicine (11.4%), and architectural and engineering activities (7.7%).

Peter Torrens, Regional Director for Santander Corporate Banking in Northern Ireland, said that the firms have demonstrated that they can thrive despite the current financial climate.

“Contrary to popular thinking, these champion businesses operate across a wide range of industry sectors proving that fast growth is not confined to the technology industry,” he said.

“Banks have a responsibility to support businesses to accelerate growth at all stages of their life-cycle. Using the common characteristics exhibited by Growth Champions, we can identify the fast-growth businesses of the future and provide the support they need to help them fulfil their potential,” he added.

The Breakthrough Growth Champions Report was commissioned by Santander to explore how the credit crunch and resulting recession impacted on small and medium sized businesses.

Information and services firm Experian was commissioned by Santander to carry out the analysis into patterns of employment growth among the UK’s smaller businesses – those with turnovers between £500,000 and £10m per annum. The analysis concentrated first on the period 2002 to 2008, and then separately on the period 2008 to 2010, in order to measure the impact of recession.

But Roger Pollen, Head of External Affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, warned that while small businesses are doing well in Northern Ireland, more needs to be done to support the private sector.

“Our figures estimate that 87% of all firms in Northern Ireland employ five people or less and there are only 100 firms classified as large businesses here – when you look at it in that light, 3,000 jobs in three years is not a huge figure.”

But one company that is leading the way in the global market is Belfast-based Thompson’s Family Teas. Currently employing over 50 in Belfast, this award-winning business was recently chosen as the Titanic Building Belfast’s official tea provider.

Profile

Founded by Robert Thompson in 1896, Thompson’s Family Teas has been owned and managed by three generations of the Thompson family. The award-winning firm has recently been appointed as the ‘official tea provider’ to the Titanic Belfast building.

The Punjana brand has been awarded double Gold in the Guild of Fine Food’s ‘Great Taste Awards’ for three consecutive years. Currently employing over 50 staff at a tea blending and packing facility in Belfast, its major markets include the UK, Republic of Ireland, and USA.

By Clare Weir Wednesday, 16 May 2012 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/revealed-small-firm s-big-role-in-jobs-growth-16159337.html

The UK’s trade deficit on goods and services was £2.7bn in March, compared to £2.9bn in February, while the deficit on goods alone was flat at £8.6bn.

Exports to countries outside the EU grew by 12%, driven by chemicals and cars, while the eurozone crisis continued to take its toll as EU exports were flat month on month.

While the deficit shrank slightly, economists said that net trade was still likely to have knocked 0.2% off gross domestic product (GDP) growth, putting a dampener on hopes that growth figures for the first quarter of the year will be revised upwards.

Vicky Redwood, Chief UK Economist at Capital Economics, said: “March’s UK trade figures showed a bit of an improvement, although the external sector still looks likely to have dragged on GDP growth in the first quarter overall.”

The UK economy shrank 0.2% in the first quarter of the year, entering a technical recession.

By Jamie Grierson Wednesday, 16 May 2012 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/business-news/export-growth-aids- deficit-16159328.html

So-called zombie insurers — firms no longer take on new customers — are sitting on billions of pounds squirrelled away by more than three million people in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties.

Some of these closed funds are dallying for a whole month before replying to savers who, desperate for a better deal, ask to transfer their pension to a new provider. It can then take another three months before the cash is released. Yet we can reveal the paperwork to transfer a pension fund can take as little as two hours to complete.

During a four-month delay insurers can pocket an extra £1,000 in charges and fees. And pensioners turning their nest eggs into income can be left £10,000 worse off over a 20-year retirement if payout rates are cut while they wait.

Billy Burrows, an independent adviser at the Better Retirement Group, says: ‘Transferring a pension is a complete nightmare. The whole thing is more of a cock-up than conspiracy. Closed life insurers just don’t put any importance on pension transfers.’

A Government-commissioned report, published in April, accuses closed pension firms of deliberately dragging their feet in a last-ditch bid to fill their coffers with fees taken from their customers’ savings.

The flopped firms can rake in as much as £100,000 for every 100 customers who want to move their savings elsewhere, Money Mail research estimates. This is due to high fees on old pensions, which are often far steeper than modern-day alternatives.

One pension firm, which wished to remain anonymous, in the Department for Work and Pensions report told investigators: ‘[Closed pension firms] are making hefty charges on that money as long as it stays with them.

‘So if they can hang on to it for another three or four months, then that’s all well and good in their book.’

Some 25 firms are signed up to a rapid transfer system where it usually takes just nine days to move pension pots — down from 51 days in 2009. Closed insurers such as Windsor Life, Abbey Life, Lincoln, Allied Dunbar, and Phoenix Life deny long delays are still commonplace.

But financial advisers, who manage hundreds of pension transfers daily, say snail-paced service, obfuscation and antiquated procedures are still common at closed providers — particularly on old workplace schemes.

Older company pensions have complex rules, paper filing systems and trustees who have to give unanimous permission before a transfer can go through. Many trustee groups meet only once a month, at a stroke adding 30 days to response times. These schemes are excluded when pension providers publish their transfer times.

Simon Bonnett, head of financial planning at private bank Duncan Lawrie, says: ‘We are banging our heads against a brick wall. The standard response time from closed life insurers is ten to 15 working days. If you don’t ask the exact question you need to, it’ll take another 15 days.’

Pensions taken out decades ago at big insurers such as Allied Dunbar, Lincoln, Abbey Life and Windsor Life (now called ReAssure) typically charge killer fees, out of touch with lower-cost modern pensions.

For example, one Abbey Life policy takes £750 a year from each £10,000 in a pot if a saver stopped making regular contributions within the first 12 months.

One Lincoln policy charges a ‘marketing’ fee of around £50 a year even though it is shut to new customers. Such high charges could see £1,000 siphoned off an average £40,000 pension every four months.

By Dan Hyde PUBLISHED: 01:06, 2 May 2012 | UPDATED: 12:02, 2 May 2012 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2138023/How-dead-insuran ce-funds-holding-life-savings-months-end.html

The report said the base rate is projected to remain on hold as the bank uses its quarterly inflation report to cut its forecast for the country’s economic activity and “brace for higher-than-expected inflation”.

IHS Global Insight chief UK economist told the paper: “It is odds-on that the new forecasts contained in the report will be the all too familiar and dispiriting mix of reduced growth but higher inflation expectations.

“We expect it to indicate that interest rates are unlikely to rise from the currently level of 0.5% until at least late-2013, and very possibly not until 2014.”

Author: IFAonline http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/ IFAonline | 14 May 2012 | 07:52 http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/ifaonline/news/2174337/king-expects-change-rates- 2013-reports?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=King+expects+no+change+to+interest+rates +%27through+2013%27+-+reports

Chief executive Jamie Dimon blamed “errors, sloppiness and bad judgement” for the losses and warned “it could get worse”.

The risky hedging strategy could cost the bank an additional $1bn, he added.

JPMorgan shares dropped 7% in after-hours trading, and other bank shares also fell.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Bank of America suffered heavy losses in electronic trading after the market close on Wall Street.

Shares in European banks were also affected, with Barclays falling 2.85%, Deutsche Bank down 2%, and BNP Paribas 2.6% lower.

‘Self-inflicted’

Overall, after accounting for other gains, losses at JPMorgan’s chief investment office (CIO) are estimated to come in at $800m in the second quarter.

The strategy taken at the CIO unit, run by Ina Drew in New York and Achilles Macris in London, had been “riskier, more volatile and less effective” than previously believed, Mr Dimon said.

“These were egregious mistakes,” he said. “They were self-inflicted and this is not how we want to run a business.

“It could get worse”, he warned. “This could go on for a little bit.”

‘Moving on’

The CIO is an arm of the bank used to make broad bets to hedge its portfolios of individual holdings. Hedging is an investment practice used to reduce the risk of price fluctuations to the value of an asset.

Attention has focused on the activities of Bruno Michel Iksil, a London-based JPMorgan trader known as the London Whale, who reportedly made big bets on the financial markets as part of this hedging strategy.

But a source close to the bank told the BBC: “We’re not talking about a rogue trader here. His was one trade in a big portfolio of trades. It was a global hedging strategy known by the bank but executed poorly. It failed.”

The trading loss, revealed in a regulatory filing, is expected to hurt JPMorgan’s overall earnings in the quarter, and will come as an embarrassment to the bank.

It had emerged from the 2008 financial crisis in much better health than many of its rivals after avoiding risky investments that had hurt others.

“We will admit it, we will learn from it, we will fix it, and we will move on,” Mr Dimon said.

He added that the bank was trying to unload the portfolio in question in a “responsible” manner in order to minimise the cost to shareholders.

‘Too big to fail’

Mr Dimon said the type of trading that led to the loss would not be banned by the so-called Volcker rule, designed to censure certain types of trading by banks with their own money.

But he acknowledged that the errors would be particularly embarrassing, given his public criticism of the Volcker rule.

“It plays right into the hands of a bunch of pundits out there, but that’s life,” he said.

Prof Mark Williams from Boston University, and a former Federal Reserve regulator, said taxpayers should be concerned about these trading losses.

“Taxpayers ultimately have to bail out these ‘too big to fail’ banks. And that’s what JPMorgan is – it is too big to fail,” he told BBC World Service radio.

“How could a bank that’s supposed to be the premier bank in setting the leadership role allow such risk taking?”

11 May 2012 Last updated at 10:42 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18030022#

The findings highlight the eye-wateringly good pensions paid to Britain’s public sector workers when the majority of private sector workers get nothing when they retire.

The disclosure comes on the day that thousands of state workers are set to stage another strike in protest at Government plans to curb the lavishly generous schemes.

Up to 400,000 workers, from immigration officers to off-duty police officers, will be involved in a wave of demonstrations across the UK.

Even after the changes, ministers insist workers will still be able to retire on a pension which most private sector workers could ‘only dream about’.

The explosive report, from The Intergenerational Foundation, says there are 78,186 retired public sector workers currently enjoying an annual pension worth more than £25,900 a year.

This is the average salary paid to a worker with a full-time job, while there are millions of part-time workers who earn a far lower salary.

The figures, obtained via a Freedom of Information request, show there is also a premier league of public sector pensioners.

Of the total of four million retired public sector workers who get a pension, there are also 12,263 who get a pension of between £50,000 and £100,000 and 148 who get more than £100,000.

To make matters worse, researchers only looked at the four big, ‘unfunded’ public sector pension schemes – NHS, civil service, teachers and Armed Forces.

As a result, the actual number is likely to be even higher if other public sector pension schemes, such as the police, MPs and the judiciary, were included.

Angus Hanton, co-founder of The Intergenerational Foundation, said the report demonstrates the true scale of the ‘pension apartheid’ in Britain.

He said: ‘This is not a matter of party politics but a matter of rising longevity, a demographic bulge and successive governments’ continued assurance that public sector pensions are affordable, realistic and sustainable.

‘Lord Hutton [the author of a major report into public sector pensions] clearly stated last year that a crisis was on its way. It is here.’ It estimates around £1,200 billion of pension promises made to today’s public sector workers is the equivalent of a £45,000 bill for each family in this country.

The report, published yesterday, compares the public sector pension crisis to ‘an enormous Ponzi scheme’ because there is no pot of money set aside to pay the ballooning bills.

Like a Ponzi scheme, it relies on new workers joining the State workforce and paying into their pension to help pay the retirement benefits of those who have retire.

The report states: ‘While many individual public sector pensions are small, some retired public sector worker benefit from an extremely large transfer of wealth from younger taxpayers.’ It comes as the number of private sector workers with a gold-plated pension is set to collapse to an all-time low of ‘less than one million’ by 2020, according to the Pensions Policy Institute.

In the 1960s, more than eight million workers in the private sector had a gold-plated pension, known as a ‘defined benefit’ scheme, such as a final salary pension.

Today just 1.6million private sector workers have a defined benefit pension, which is still enjoyed by public sector workers, but will drop even lower over the next eight years.

Yesterday a Treasury spokesman said: ‘This highlights the need to put public service pensions on a sustainable footing.

‘The Government’s reforms, based on Lord Hutton’s recommendations, will save the taxpayer tens of billions of pounds over the next few decades.

‘Even after reforms public service pensions will remain amongst the very best available, with a guaranteed, index-linked pension in retirement.

‘Those closest to retirement will be protected and the pension that most low and middle income earners receive on retirement will be at least as good, if not better, than now.’

By Becky Barrow PUBLISHED: 07:55, 10 May 2012 | UPDATED: 07:55, 10 May 2012 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2142219/80-000-public-se ctor-pensioners-paid-average-private-sector-WORKER.html

The head of investment group Berkshire Hathaway said on US television that he had no plans to buy into the social networking site, which is being floated at a value of almost $100billion (£62billion) later this year.

The comments came ahead of this weekend’s shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, where Berkshire Hathaway investors gathered to hear Buffett’s thoughts on investment and the state of the economy.

As chairman and chief executive, Buffett – dubbed the Sage of Omaha – has become an investment legend as his business has regularly outperformed the stock market, although its results have been more disappointing in recent years.

In January he gave a fillip to Tesco when it was announced that Berkshire Hathaway had raised its stake in the supermarket from 3.2 per cent to just over five per cent, a day after the group had issued a shock profits warning.

Buffett, 81, has built stakes in some of the world’s biggest names, including Coca-Cola, American Express and Kraft Foods.

His Facebook statement will not please the website’s backers, but he was careful to say he did not believe high-tech stocks were in a valuation bubble similar to the one that burst at the end of the 1991-2000 dotcom boom.

Facebook’s price has raised eyebrows among many analysts who say that very high growth rates will be needed in future profits to justify the valuation.

By Simon Watkins PUBLISHED: 22:08, 5 May 2012 | UPDATED: 10:28, 6 May 2012 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-2140019/Warren-Buffett- snubs-flotation-Facebook.html

The Queen’s Speech yesterday set out plans for a new flat-rate pension, expected to be worth £155 a week.

At the moment the basic pension rate is £107.45 a week, but many women fail to qualify for the full amount because they have taken time out from work to bring up children and have not built up enough National Insurance contributions.

Under the reforms outlined yesterday, a new payment, worth £140 a week today, will be introduced for all from 2015, by which time it will amount to an estimated £155.

The Government believes that around two million mothers, currently in their 40s and 50s, will benefit from the change.

The reform will also mean an end to the existing, less generous rate for couples. Currently, their rate is £171.85 a week, topped up to £217.90 for those who qualify for means-tested pension credit.

Under the new system they will qualify for £280 a week in today’s money, or £310 a week in 2015. Setting the level of the new single-tier state pension above the current minimum income guaranteed to pensioners will mean an end to the indignity and bureaucracy of means testing, ministers say.

The sting in the tail is that the state pension age – already set to rise to 66 for both men and women by 2020 – will increase further in the years ahead.

The Queen’s Speech outlined plans to increase the state pension age to 67 between 2026 and 2028, affecting anyone aged 52 or younger now. It also confirmed that the Government intends to link future increases in the age to longevity.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail: ‘Workers today have no idea how much they’ll get when they retire. Our plans for a simple, decent, single-tier state pension will mean that, finally, it pays to save, and those who work hard and do the right thing will be rewarded.

‘For future pensioners, the single tier will not only reduce the reliance on means testing but also undo injustices to women in the system.’

Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb said: ‘Our plans will radically simplify the state pension system, and set it above the level of the means test, providing a fair and sustainable foundation for pension saving for people of working age.’

Ministers at the Work and Pensions department have long argued the current state pension system is both bewilderingly complex and acting as a disincentive to save for retirement.

Joanne Segars, chief executive of the National Association of Pension Funds, said: ‘This is another big step towards a simpler, more generous state pension that no longer penalises people for saving.

‘A new system will take millions out of means-tested benefits and will encourage people to take control of their old age by saving towards it.

‘We are all living longer, so it is inevitable that retirement ages move upwards to reflect that. The trade-off for working longer must be a better state pension come retirement.’

Malcolm McLean, a pensions expert at actuaries Barnett Waddingham, said: ‘It is good news that the concept of a new flat-rate state pension has moved another very significant step forward.

‘There are very clear advantages in such a system; a simpler and easier-to-understand pension for future pensioners as well as for many of today’s workers a platform on which to base private saving without the risk of overlap with means-tested benefits.

‘It is a pity, of course, that existing pensioners will not be included, and that in consequence we will have two systems running side by side for many years.

‘There are also a number of points of detail which will bear further scrutiny when they emerge, including how accrued rights to the state second pension above the baseline of £140 will be treated, and what impact the ending of contracting out rebates from defined benefit schemes will have on national insurance contribution payments for employees and employers.

‘Overall, though, this is a positive move forward in cutting through the complexities and convoluted nature of the present state pension arrangements.’

By James Chapman PUBLISHED: 07:52, 10 May 2012 | UPDATED: 07:52, 10 May 2012 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2142218/Queens-Speech-Pe nsion-victory-flat-rate-155-week-payout.html

Marking the state opening of Parliament this morning, the Queen’s Speech set out the government’s agenda for the new parliamentary session, focusing on “economic growth, justice, and constitutional reform”.

She said: “Legislation will be introduced to reform public service pensions in line with the recommendations of the independent commission on public service pensions.”

Other provisions of the Public Service Pensions Bill will include asking people to retire later, with pension benefits normally paid at state pension age, with the exception of members of the police, armed forces and firefighters’ schemes.

In supplementary notes to the speech, the government said the reforms would “ensure provision is sustainable and that costs and benefits between employers, workers and other taxpayers are balanced more fairly”.

Meanwhile, as expected, the Queen also confirmed plans to overhaul the state pension, with a flat-rate worth about £140 a week set to be introduced and the state pension age to be increased to 67 between 2026 and 2028.

Most of the key points of the speech were heavily trailed ahead of its delivery this morning, including plans to make banks ringfence their high street operations from the ‘casino’-style investment businesses.

The Queen said: “Measures will be brought forward to further strengthen regulation of the financial services sector and implement the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking.”

Author: http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/author/1313/rahul-odedra Rahul Odedra http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/ IFAonline | 09 May 2012 | 11:55 http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/ifaonline/news/2173431/queen-s-speech-govt-presse s-ahead-public-sector-pension-plans?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Queen%E2%80%99s+S peech%3A+Govt+presses+ahead+with+public+sector+pension+plans