PFRDA

Are you happy with your pension provider if you are with Norwich Union?

Under the new system of 'lifestyle' rates being introduced by NU someone with the same £35,000 private pension investment with the company who smokes, is single, and who lives is a less wealthy neighbourhood, will receive several hundred pounds a year more than those who do not smoke, are married and who live in a wealthier area! The smoking and marriage calculation will become effective in November. Spokesperson Cheryl Cox said 'it's important that people realise that it isn't always the more affluent on society who get the best rate'! And here is the killer crunch - 'but everybody gets the same pot', she said. People who were adjudged likely not to live as long would simply get more during the years they were alive than those who were 'slightly better off' and so likely to live longer. God help them - my mother has smoked since she was 14, is now 82, smokes around 30 a day (unfiltered) and is as fit as a fiddle - her mother lived to be 105! Guess who has her pension plan? What about the burden on the rest of us having to pay for treatment for various diseases which most who do or have smoked end up with? It's still not fair - we have a double whammy here, whilst these people are making themselves ill through smoking we have to support them through the NHS also! Too true! Careful, don't get too excited we don't want any mishaps! Oh God! Susanshusband - this might be the way to kickstart the housing market!

Public Comments

1. All of us with an NU pension should move to poorer areas with low life-expectancies - that would screw their plans!!
2. Enhanced annuity rates for smokers and people in ill health is nothing new - it's been around for years. If you smoke you get a better rate and if you have a serious medical conditon your rate improves again. This is because you are likely to live less than those who don't smoke and are in good health so statistically, the insurance provider will be paying the pension (annuity) for a shorter period.
3. My advice is for young folk not to buy a pension because if they do and they are successful in life, they will be penalised by the ever increasingly more communistic insurance companies such as Norwich Union. Thankfully I'm with a company which owns lots of buildings worldwide and so long as the rents keep on rolling in, there should not be a problem with money. I've been drawing my pension now since age 51 - now 67 - might live another 15 years - gotta get my money back. Where to put money for old age if not in a pension? Gold coins - gold is untracebale and untaxable and in spite of what people may think, the price of gold does just keep going up. Other money can be put into Income Bonds up to the amount of £1million. Try not to risk too much in the stock markets - only ever what you can afford to lose. On the whole however, the stock market is a better bet than the high street.