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Keep Britons in dark over rip-off pensions charges! Advisers warn Treasury to cover up truth

Keeping it quiet: Advisers say ministers Britain's savings culture could be destroyed if savers learnt the truth about pension charges

The Treasury has been urged to cover up the true cost of pension stealth charges or risk 'permanent damage' to Britain's savings culture. Greedy investment managers nab an astronomical £62.7billion a year from the £2.1trillion held in savings and pensions by exploiting hidden fees, the Government's advisers said.

Move jobs and you will see small pension pots locked up until 55 under new rules

Big plans: Pensions minister Steve Webb has quickly stamped his mark and his latest move is a plan to abolish short-service refunds

Current rules allow staff to get all their contributions back if they quit or get sacked less two years after joining a workplace pension scheme.

Confusion after ministers hail public sector pension deal only for unions to withdraw after Pickles intervention

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles appears to have written new conditions into an agreement with the union which has made them back off

Union leaders were furious after Mr Pickles allegedly inserted new conditions into a carefully-worded deal agreed with the Treasury that would have capped employer contributions to workers’ pensions.

Pension payouts crash 10% since summer... is now the worst EVER time to retire?

Nasty shock: Savers are getting to retirement age to find their pension buys less than expected

Unlucky sixty-something Britons retiring this December are being clobbered with possibly the worst pension payout rates that will ever exist, industry insiders are warning.

Targeted: Salesman allowed dying man to sign away £500,000 on a pension that would never pay out

Family affair: Mr Hensher (right) with his parents and sister Brenda (left) in 1947

Eighty-year-old Norman Hensher, who had been diagnosed with throat cancer five months earlier, lost £500,000 after a salesman from State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland sold him a pension from Britain’s largest insurer Aviva.

The mid-career pensions squeeze: How the cost of getting your £20k a year retirement has rocketed

Family savers: A worker in their late 30s or early 40s who thinks they have put plenty aside for retirement may not find that is enough

A typical 40-year-old saver needs to stash away an extra 15 per cent of his salary compared to nine months ago to reach the magic lifestyle target.

Over 55s 'significantly poorer' than a year ago after raiding savings pot for £4,000 each

Making ends meet: The over 55s have been hard-hit by the financial squeeze

Swathes of over 55s have had to dip into their savings pots in the financial squeeze.

New Brussels rules will burden struggling final salary pensions with £100billion bill says minister

Hard-hitting: Steve Webb said new rules will burden final salary pensions with a £100billion bill which would trigger massive numbers of closures of schemes

The last of Britain's top private pension schemes could be 'destroyed' under rules dreamed up by Brussels bureaucrats, ministers warned yesterday.

Pension savers to get pension 'cash back' on tiny pots under new tax rules

Making pensions pay: The Government has helped savers by changing the rules for accessing very small pots

Pensioners will be able to turn personal pension pots worth less than £2,000 into cash lump sums under new rules announced by the Government.

Beat the pensions crunch: Get a better retirement despite record low annuity rates

Search: David Spencer tracked down the best annuity for him and wife Maureen

OAPs see savings reward snatched away but awarded biggest state pension rise since 1908

Step in right direction: Arthur Haldenby, 65, who started receiving £128 a week in state pension last month, said he was pleased that the amount will r

The rise in the basic state pension is now linked to earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent, 'whichever is highest', a new rule introduced by the Coalition and dubbed the 'triple lock'.

Widows left penniless as two in every three couples don’t take out a joint annuity

Peace of mind: Keith Raes took out a joint annuity that will pay two-thirds of his income to his wife Janet if he dies first

The majority buy a single life annuity that stops paying out when the person who bought it passes away.

Savers pay £3.1bn a year in hidden charges on pensions - wiping 15% off savings over 20 years

Hand over notes

The problem is ‘dealing’ costs which are incurred whenever a fund manager chops and changes an investment held within your pension.

Workers hit with double charges on old company pensions when they switch jobs

Penalised: Workers who switch jobs are getting hit with drastic hikes to their pension charges, regulators warn

The annual charge for someone saving into a workplace pension can shoot from 0.6 per cent to 1.4 per cent - eating 20% of their pot over 25 years.

Aviva asked for a £50 cheque to put into my private pension - but it has vanished

A man writing a cheque

Aviva wrote to me in February to say they could not take direct debits at that time and could I pay by cheque, so I sent £50 - but it appears to have vanished.

Why has my State Pension been cut by 12.5% at age 73?

Tony Hetherington

I retired at 65 after working from age 15. Now, at 73, I have been told my State pension will be reduced by £1,000 a year. Tony Hetherington responds

How do we claim our UK state pension if we emigrate to Australia?

Life in the sun: But how do you take your state pension with you?

My wife and I are a few years from retirement and are emigrating to Australia. How do we go about claiming our state pensions from Down Under?

What should I do to protect my savings if I need old age care?

Expensive help: Care homes for the elderly can cost up to £50,000 a year

I am a retired 65-year old homeowner in good health but I'm worried I will lose my life savings if I need care in old age. What should I do?

Pension penalty apparent on my statement from Sun Life Financial of Canada

Senior man reading papers

Pension statement says my investments are £24k but the transfer value is £19k - why the discrepancy?

Do I have to wait until I'm 55 to get a pension policy quote?

Getting on with it: I can't research my pension policy options because I'm not 55 yet - is this normal?

As we are now advised to shop around for an annuity, I thought I would do exactly that - but everywhere seems to request I wait until I turn 55.

Can you tell me what happens if an annuity provider defaults?

Lost savings? It's unlikely as even Equitable Life met annuity liabilities in full

I've retired for nine years and have a few annuities with Aviva and Canada Life. I am aware of the Government compensation scheme for savers if the savings provider goes bust.

I'm getting divorced after 15 years, will my wife get a share of my whole pension?

Couple Arguing

I am getting divorced after 15 years of marriage. Is my wife entitled to a share of my pension which I have paid into all my working life?

Can you get a decent pension if you only earn £616 a month?

Head start: Starting to save young will stand you in good stead

My niece works 24 hours a week and earns £616 a month. What's the best private pension she could take out and how much would she need to contribute each month?

Pension age 'could rise one year every seven' hitting 68 for today's 40-year-olds

A long way off for some: Younger workers may have to put retirement dreams on ice

Public sector workers can get a pension worth 20 times value of their contributions

Top-notch pensions: Teachers and other state sector staff get very generous retirement benefits

State workers can contribute just £46,000 to get a pension worth £26,000 a year - an income that could cost a private sector worker six times as much to secure.

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Millions face pension shortfalls on wildly exaggerated official forecasts as 4% growth becomes the norm

Michael Poat, with his wife Margaret, says his pension pot is a fraction of what he expected

Savers today are told their pensions will grow at rates of up to 9 per cent a year, while those who started in the 1990s were told 12-13 per cent. Such forecasts have proved to be hopelessly wide of the mark.

Millions face longer wait to retire after pension age hike to 67 moved forward to 2026

Another blow: Millions of men and women in their fifties will wait an extra year before getting a state pension

In his mini-Budget today, George Osborne yanked forward the planned state pension age hike to 67 by a decade.

Pensions minister admits pensioners might have to take a hit for greater good of boosting the economy

Admission: Pensions minister Steve Webb

Measures that are necessary to help the economy in the long term are worth taking, even if the trade-off is that pensioners will suffer in the short term, according to Pensions Minister Steve Webb (pictured).

Pensions auto-enrolment delayed for small firms as Government 'panics' over economy

Panic measure? The pensions industry criticised the Government's pension reform delay, despite suggestions it will save small firms millions of pounds

Government plans to get every British worker enrolled into a company pension by force were watered down today over fears of damaging a fragile economy.

Market chaos threatens your pensions dreams, baby boomers told. So what should you do?

Flimsier than you thought: Baby boomers shouldn't start celebrate a cosy retirement before they get there - there's work to be done

Savers in the baby boomer generation are being told to wake up to dangers of market storm or suffer a pension hit.

QE is 'destroying the incomes' of new pensioners as annuity rates tumble

Sacrificial lambs: Dr Ros Altmann said incomes were often too low to live on.

Those about to retire have become the nation’s ‘sacrificial lambs’ as a consequence of the Government’s obsession with quantitative easing, according to pensions guru Ros Altmann.

Pension saving at 55-year low as just one in seven workers pay into their company scheme

Missing out: Millions of private sector workers who earn more than those in the public sector are receiving smaller pensions, with some having to contribute a third of their salary to match the pots of their counterparts

According to the Office for National Statistics, just 8.3million were saving into a work pension last year: three million in the private sector and 5.3million in the public sector

New state pension age: Find out when you will be able to retire with our guide

Senior man

A £140 state pension, public sector strikes and crashing incomes: What on EARTH is happening to our pensions?

Elderly Woman

From strikes over public sector pension changes to a new £140 a week state pension - we take a look at what the future holds for Britain's pensions

Q&A;: What does the six month state pension age reprieve mean?

Victory: Women in their late fifties won't have to wait as long to get their state pension

Thousands of women have been handed a massive financial bonus after a reprieve from the Government over the raising the state pension age. We take a look at the implications.

How to find the cheapest Sipp

pounds

A guide to finding the cheapest Self-Invested Personal Pension (Sipp): Questions you need to ask and a list of low-cost providers

GUIDE: How to combine pension pots

Knot

Combining pension pots built up in different jobs could make real financial sense