Preparation for the next USDAW Midlands Divisional Council meeting. 29/10/2015

I have been reading through lots of paperwork for the next meeting.

I have had to read through 108 USDAW Organising Awards nominations forms.
I need to pick one person for each of the 9 categories who I think deserve the awards.

This is the hardest part of being an USDAW Divisional Councillor, as I know that each person who has been nominated has done an amazing job representing USDAW and their members.
It makes it hard to decide when there are so many people who have done very similar things during the year.

I have decided on who I will be voting for in three of the categories. The other six I have drawn up a short list and I will look at these over the next two days before the Midlands Divisional Council meeting on Wednesday 28th October 2015.

I'm pleased to say that every single person who has been nominated will receive a framed certificate in recognition for there nomination.

The 9 winners of the Midlands Divisional awards will be invited to attend the USDAW National awards Presentation night in Manchester in January 2016 where they will be presented with there Regional award and they will enjoy a three course meal, over night stay and the ceremony revealing the National award winners.
I have been lucky enough to be a regional award winner and the experience of the awards presentation is amazing.

I send my congratulations to every nominee and wish you all the best of luck.
I will not list any of the regional award winners until they have been officially announced at a later date.

USDAW 11th National Pensions conference - Part 3

Afternoon session

Workshop 4 – Debra Blow USDAW Hot Topics

(1) Pension freedoms and problems

Options at retirement for defined contribution pensions 

100% cash - Cash withdrawals - 25% cash and drawdown - Annuity purchase

Problems

Taxasition issues

(2) Pension transfers and the pitfalls
Transferring a defined benefit pension into a Defined contribution pension.
Exit penalties
Loss of guarantees
Reduced transfer value

(3) Short service refunds
The current options if you leave a pension scheme are –
Deferred pension or transfer into your next pension fund.

Refund of your contributions minus tax and employer contributions
Transfer into your next pension scheme
From October 2015 you can only get a refund of your paid pension contributions within 30 days of joining a pension scheme.
This is designed around the auto enrolment scheme where you need to opt out of the pension.

(4) Pot follows member
The average person will have 11 jobs in there lifetime.
This could result in lots of small frozen pension pots that are easy to lose track of, can lose value due to continuing charges each year and the pots are to small to buy a pension.
The DWP are proposing a new system where a person can take their pension pot from one employer to the next as long as the pot is no more than £10,000. This will make it easier to track pension pots and allow you to buy an income with your pot.

(5) Auto Enrolment
All companies have to re enrol all staff that are not in the pension scheme every 3 years. This still applies if a staff member was previously auto enrolled and they decided to opt out of the pension scheme. The company should write to these employees explaining this so they are aware and can re opt out should they wish to do so.

Small and medium sized companies are about to introduce auto enrolment.
Some employers have deferred this until 2017 / 2018.
Where employers have a pension scheme with the state minimum contributions these will be increased.

October 2012 – Sept 2017
Employee 1% employer 1% total 2%

October 2017 – Sept 2018                                                                                                                         Employee 3% employer 2% total 5%

October 2018 – onwards
Employee 5% employer 3% total 8%

(6) Cap on pension charges
From April 2015 a cap on pension scheme charges was introduced. This is 0.75%

(7) How can USDAW and Reps help?
Reps can hold Pension awareness days using the great range of leaflets that USDAW has produced on Pensions.

Reps can encourage members to complete the USDAW home study courses on Pensions.

Afternoon session continued

Catherine Lockyer First actuarial – TAX.

Catherine spoke about how we all need a pension we all need to pay tax in different amounts and in different ways.

Catherine explained how workers are affected by tax, national insurance and pensions.

The tax free allowance is £10,600 – no income tax up to that level

The basic tax rate is £10,600 to £42,400  – 20% income tax rate

Anything above £42,400 you will pay the 40% income tax rate

 National insurance payments start at £8,060 with a 12% rate

 Earning over £42,400 will pay 2%

Your pay will be deducted of national insurance first and then it will be deducted of income tax.

When you are making contributions to a pension scheme its good to know where the tax relief happens.

Some pension schemes will take contributions before tax from your gross pay (net pay scheme) others will take it from net pay (relief at source schemes).

There is no difference to fulltime employees who pay income tax.

The people who benefit are low paid workers who don’t pay income tax as the government will pay the income tax into the pension fund only if your pension scheme is a relief at source scheme.

Other pension schemes will take your contributions from your net pay - which means you have paid full income tax on all of your pay.

The pension company will then claim the tax back from the government and add this into your pension fund. 

USDAW 11th National Pensions conference - Part 2

Morning session continued

Workshop 1 – Debra Blow USDAW 10 point Pension plan

(1)    Find out if your company has a pension scheme

What type of scheme is it?

Do you qualify for auto enrolment?

Advantages of a pension scheme

Employer contributions, government also contributes, tax concessions, additional benefits and retain entitlement if leave employer.

(2)    How much will it cost?

Check the company pension booklet.

What will your employer pay?

Auto enrolment scheme?

What additional benefits are available?

(3)    Should I pay additional voluntary contributions?

Can boost income in retirement

Choice of investment

Low charges

(4)    How much will I get when I retire?

Pension will depend on the amount of contributions you have paid in

How long have you paid contributions

What are the charges on your pension fund

(5)    What has happened to your previous pensions?

Keep all your pension statements and documents especially if you leave an employer and have a frozen pension.

(6)    What choices will I have when I retire?

Up to April 2015

Lump sum and pension or pension only

After April 2015

Entire fund as cash or series of smaller lump sums

Quarter of pension fund as a lump sum plus a regular income ( drawdown ) or a pension

(7)    What happens if I die before I retire?

If your pension fund is in a defined contribution scheme your pension fund will be paid to your beneficiaries along with any death in service benefit your scheme offers.

Ensure you have an up to date nomination form

(8)    Should I have a will?

USDAW offer a free will service.

Having a will makes it easier to know what your wishes are should you die.

(9)    What will my state pension be?

At present this will be £115.95

You can claim at 67

Use the pension forecast forms

(10) How can I avoid pension scams?

      Seek advice from a registered financial advisor before you do anything regarding your pension.

Yes this will cost you a few hundred pounds but its better to be safe than sorry.

USDAW 11th National Pensions conference - Part 1

I applied to attend the National pensions Conference and was offered a place..
I drove up on Wednesdsay 7th October and due to the distance USDAW booked me into a hotel.
I met up with a few others from the Midlands Division and we had a good catch up that evening over a meal at the EFFS Braserie ( greek and indian food ) in Warrington.

On Thursday 8th October I arrived at 9.30am to register for the conference.

Upon arrival I was given my credentials and a welcome pack.

The welcome pack contained the agenda for the day and a list of which groups delegates would be in along with several useful leaflets and posters.

Morning session

  

The conference started with a welcome from Jeff Broome and Debra Blow USDAW Pensions officer.

We then herd from our first guest speaker of the day Sheena Taylor – DWP who spoke about the changes being made to the state pension.

Guest speaker Sheena Taylor DWP – State Pension.

Sheena spoke about the changes being made to the state pension.

Sheena explained that the government is currently looking at the state pension to make it fair and sustainable.

The current state pension contains several criteria that can allow an increase in a persons state pension.

The new state pension will still have disability benefits and means tested housing benefit and council tax.

The new full state pension will be at least £151.25 this figure will be set in the autumn statement.

The new state pension will start from 6^th April 2016 and will affect anyone who will reach state pension age from that date. Men – 6^th April 1961 Women – 6^th April 1964.

You need at least 10 qualifying years of paying national insurance to qualify for the state pension but to get the new full state pension you need 35 qualifying years of paid national insurance.

There will be a transitional period that will likely be several decades due to the number of years people are required to pay national insurance. This will cover workers who are working now and wont qualify for the new state pension until after 6^th April 2016.

The transitional period will do calculations using the old and new state pension systems.

You would then receive the higher of the two calculations.

Sheena also explained that it is worth keeping all of your p60’s so that when you do come to retire from work and go to claim the state pension these will help to prove the national insurance you have paid, as there can be gaps in records if you have moved jobs and moved house during your working life.

There is a state pension toolkit that can be found on gov.uk that will be useful to members.

As the full state pension figure is still not known the documents will only be for the current state pension figure.

Divisional Council Meeting number Five

Wednesday 30th September I attended my fifth Divisional Council meeting at the USDAW Redditch office. 

Apologies were received from:

Gareth Davies - Holiday
Maureen Bowen - Conference

Minutes from the previous DC meeting

We then read the minutes from the previous DC meeting. These were accepted. 

Minutes of the recent EC meeting

We received the EC Minutes from Andrea.

There is a proposed membership contribution increase for membership scales A and C.
As in previous years this will be debated and voted on at ADM.

There will also be E.C statements at the 2016 ADM regarding -
Europe
Equalities
Politics

There will be a by-election in the North West due to a member of the E.C Leaving USDAW.

There will be a new Domestic Violence leaflet in production.

Minutes from other Divisional Councils

We took a look at the minutes from other Divisional Councils. These were accepted. 

Central office circulars and press releases

We looked through a selection of circulars from central office and a selection of press releases. These were accepted. 

Federation reports
There were no Federation reports but it was noted that Paul white will be reporting back for the West Midlands Conference at the next meeting due to Kate Macleod being away on Hol.

Divisional officers report
We received the Deputy Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

Membership total  - 439,719 nationally and 57,293 divisional. 

Stand down - 161 reps since 1/1/2015

Who have signed up 1,459 new members. 

We received the Divisional officers report from Gavin Dadley.

(1) Paper work for the USDAW Organising Awards 2015 will be sent to all Divisional Council members two weeks before the next meeting to allow time to select our choice for each award..

(2) Labour party leadership team.
There is a new Labour party leadership team and we all need to give them our full support and work towards the next general election.

(3) National TUC rally in Manchester on 4th October.
There will be no transport due to not enough numbers attending from the Midlands. Those who are travelling to the rally have access to flags and USDAW will be taking the giant USDAW balloons, as have been used in previous TUC events.

The Divisional officers report was read and all points noted/endorsed.

East Midlands Regional Labour Party Annual Conference
we needed to select a delegation of four people from six applicants.
One of the delegation needed to be an Area Organiser.

We selected one Area Organiser and three members to attend the Conference.
We each voted for three members and the three with the most votes will be contacted.

Black and Asian Members Weekend Workshop
We needed to select three members as delegates and two reserves from a list of thirteen applicants.
Before we voted three people were removed from the applications due to not completing the required information sheet.

We each voted for three members and the three with the most votes will be contacted to say they are attending the Weekend Workshop and the two people with the next highest votes have been placed on the list as our reserves.

National Retail Trades Conference

No vote required as the total number of applicants was under the number of places available.

Any other Business

we then moved on to any other business.

The meeting was then closed.