- March 25 (Lady Day)
- June 24 (Midsummer Day)
- September 29 (Michaelmas Day)
- December 25 (Christmas Day)
Paul Lewis Money
This blog supplements the paullewismoney twitter with longer comments, explanations and guides.
Saturday, 5 April 2025
WHY DOES THE TAX YEAR REALLY BEGIN ON 6 APRIL?
Friday, 19 July 2024
LABOUR'S 74% TAX ON EARNINGS FOR PEOPLE ON UNIVERSAL CREDIT
Earns extra
|
£1.00
| |
Tax
|
20%
|
-£0.20
|
NI
| 8%
|
-£0.08
|
Net after tax
|
£0.72
| |
UC reduction
|
55%
|
-£0.40
|
Net after UC
|
£0.32
| |
CTR cut
|
20%
|
-£0.06
|
Net gain
|
£0.26
| |
Version 4.0
Tuesday, 21 May 2024
TARGET 221 - BOOST YOUR NEW STATE PENSION
- nurses, doctors, and others in the NHS
- teachers in schools and universities
- police officers and fire brigade staff
- civil servants
- local government workers
- armed forces
- Post Office workers
Another large group affected are people who worked for a private sector employer who paid into a good scheme at work that promised them a pension related to their salary. They used to be called ‘final salary’ schemes and nowadays are called Defined Benefit or DB schemes. In the past many large firms ran such schemes. There are still more than 5000 of them and if you paid into one at any time from 1978 your new state pension will be reduced.
THE DEDUCTION
Men can get credits for years between women’s state pension age and 65. They get a credit for the tax year in which they reach women's state pension age (unless they also reach 65 in that tax year) and any subsequent tax year before the tax year they reach 65. So these man credits are only available to men born before 6 October 1953. See footnote.
BOOSTING A NEW STATE PENSION THAT IS SUBJECT TO A
CONTRACTED OUT PENSION EQUIVALENT (COPE) DEDUCTION
Reach State Pension Age in |
Men born |
Women born |
Years you can pay |
Maximum pension boost (2024/25 rates) |
||
2016/17 |
6 April 1951 |
5 April 1952 |
6 April 1953 |
5 July 1953 |
0 |
£0.00 |
2017/18 |
6 April 1952 |
5 April 1953 |
6 July 1953 |
5 Oct 1953 |
1 |
£6.32 |
2018/19 |
6 April 1953 |
5 Jan 1954 |
6 Oct 1953 |
5 Jan 1954 |
2 |
£12.64 |
Men and women born |
||||||
2019/20 |
from 6 January 1954 |
to 5 July 1954 |
3 |
£18.96 |
||
2020/21 |
from 6 July 1954 |
to 5 April 1955 |
4 |
£25.28 |
||
2021/22 |
from 6 April 1955 |
to 5 April 1956 |
5 |
£31.60 |
||
2022/23 |
from 6 April 1956 |
to 5 April 1957 |
6 |
£37.92 |
||
2023/24 |
from 6 April 1957 |
to 5 April 1958 |
7 |
£44.24 |
||
2024/25 |
from 6 April 1958 |
to 5 April 1959 |
8 |
£50.56 |
||
2025/26 |
from 6 April 1959 |
9 |
£51.70 (max) |
In the past, many people have contacted the DWP and been told they cannot boost their pension because they already have 35 years or more of contributions. That is incorrect. Some officials seem to be confusing this scheme with one to fill gaps in your contribution record. Others have been told that they need more than 35 years to get a full pension. That can be true in the circumstances in this blogpost, but it is a confusing way to put it.
6. If you have an old company or personal pension you cannot trace, use the Government's free Pension Tracing Service.
7. Contacted Out Pension Equivalent is the amount deducted from your new state pension to take account of the time you were contracted out of SERPS/S2P. In theory the amount deducted should be paid to you by the pension scheme you paid into as part of being contracted out. But that will not always happen especially if you were contracted out into a personal pension. This government guide to contracting out sort of explains it.
8. Man credits. These credits for men - called auto-credits - are only awarded for whole tax years, not individual weeks. Men born 6 April 1952 to 5 April 1953 can get a year of contributions credited for 2016/17. They may also get earlier years credit but they do not help with reducing their contracted out deduction. Men born 6 April 1953 to 5 October 1953 can get a year credited for 2017/18. Men born 6 October 1953 or later cannot get them.
BOOST YOUR PENSION GUIDES FOR OTHER GROUPS
Previously: Target 203, Target 155, Target 164, Target 169, Target 175, Target 179, Target 185
89944
Sunday, 31 March 2024
Nanocharge will fund remission of fees at top university
OXFORD UNIVERSITY TO ABOLISH STUDENT FEES
One of Britain's top universities is to abolish student fees after the Supreme Court allowed it to charge a royalty on every use of English words online.

Monday, 23 October 2023
FIND GOOD FINANCIAL ADVICE
How do I find a good financial adviser? It's a question I am often asked. And there is no easy answer. Especially if you do not have a lot of money.
Under these rules there are two main sorts of financial advisers.
The sort you want is called 'independent'. That can mean one of two things.
1. They give advice on all financial matters and looks across the whole of the market and give that advice on any financial topic where they might recommend a product.
2. They give advice on a specific type of product - such as annuities or pensions - and not on other types of product. But they must still look across the whole of the market relating to that product. This may be called 'focused independent' or may just be called 'independent'.
Any adviser who is not independent does not look at the whole of the market and may be tied to one or more firms and can only recommend products from those firms. In the UK these advisers are called 'restricted' though hardly any of them used that term. Never ever use an adviser who is restricted by products. If you ask 'do you offer independent financial advice' and the answer is anything but a clear 'yes' then reject them. Many work for a bank or insurance company and of course only recommend you buy their products. That is just sales masquerading as advice.
A lot of advisers will be rejected by Filter One. The only way through it is to become independent.
- you know each year how much has been taken from you so you can see if it is value for money.
- you review the service you get every year and if it is poor, find another adviser.
Contingent fees
One iniquitous method of charging grew up around pension transfers. If you have a good company pension that promises you a pension related to your salary - called Final Salary or sometimes Career Average schemes (they are branded Defined Benefit or DB schemes by the industry) you may be tempted to transfer it to a pension pot scheme - a money purchase or Defined Contribution (DC) scheme.
Transferring out of a DB scheme into a DC scheme can seem very tempting because you will get a massive amount of money to move away from the guaranteed DB pension. And then if you choose to do so you can cash some or all of that pension in. It is almost always a bad idea. In the past some financial advisers who would deal with this for you (you have to get advice if your pension is worth a transfer value of £30,000 or more) charged on a 'contingent' basis. That meant you only paid them if you took their advice and transfered your fund. Such fees created a conflict of interest between you and the adviser who was only paid if you transfered. The FCA finally saw sense and banned contingent fees from 1 October 2020.
These three filters will take you a long way towards finding good, safe, but often expensive, financial advice. There may be adequate or even good, safe, and perhaps cheaper advisers which have been filtered out. They can get themselves through my three filters by becoming independent, getting financial planning qualifications, and changing the way they charge.
I must also add that there are a small number of well qualified independent financial advisers who have given dreadful advice (especially about pension transfers), have gone out of business, or have even turned out to be crooks. So these three filters are not a guarantee but they are a good start.
Website research
1. Adviser Book is the newest directory. Unlike the others no-one pays to be included. It has the complete list of more than 12,000 FCA regulated adviser firms on it but it does not yet list individual advisers separately. It clearly states who is verified as independent thouhg most of them are still unverified. You can filter by qualifications and specialisms. You can also filter by independent and how fees are charged.
2. Unbiased was the first real attempt at a comprehensive database. It says it lists more than 18,000 financial advisers who are mainly independent but some are restricted. Advisers get a basic listing free but they must pay a subscription to be directly contactable through the website. You will see a list of the 'top 20' near your postcode which unbiased says is based on how near they are to you.
You can use the site to apply my filters. You can also make other choices such as specialisms or qualifications. You can even pick a male or a female adviser.
3. Vouched For uses its algorithms to provide a list of advisers for you. They are ordered to take account of how local they are to you, reviews by customers, and ratings. Advisers cannot pay for a better position in the list. The site checks qualifications by asking the senior manager who is responbile for them and checks that periodically. It demands images of certificate for qualifcations.
Other listings are available but they are much less useful. The Personal Finance Society lists all the advisers who have its qualifications and are Chartered Financial Planners, or are on the way to becoming Chartered, or work for a firm which is Chartered. That is a useful check. But it does not indicate if they are independent.
Next steps
Most advisers will give you one free session. Go prepared with details and information about yourself. Try two or three and see which you prefer. Do not be embarrassed to say 'no' to them.
If you pick an adviser but later regret it you can leave by just writing them a letter telling them that they are no longer your adviser. Ask them to return any documents and destroy all your data. If you feel you have been badly advised or locked into investments you did not want, then complain and pursue the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Free financial advice
If you are ever cold called or receive a text or email from an adviser you have not found and researched just say 'no'. No-one ever lost money by doing that. Many have lost money by not doing that.