News & Events

At Ease - pensioners' newsletter Autumn 2002

This is a text version of the newsletter. A full colour version can be viewed  (page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6)

Welcome to the Autumn 2002 atease - Avon Pension Fund’s newsletter for pensioner members of the Fund.

We’ve included news and information you need to be aware of, a couple of interesting and informative articles and a quiz to keep you on your toes! Avon Pension Fund are delighted to announce the recent launch of our brand new website; a wealth of pensions information (including pages especially for pensioner members) can be found on the site. The address is www.avonpensionfund.org.uk

On the back page of this issue, you will find highlights from the Fund’s 2001/2002 accounts (currently subject to audit). Copies of the full Annual Report & Accounts will be available shortly in libraries throughout the former Avon area.

The decline in world equity markets continued during the financial year 2001/2002 and this has resulted in a further reduction in the value of the Fund. However, as mentioned in previous newsletters, your pension entitlements are guaranteed and are not affected by changes in the value of the Fund’s assets.

Because Gartmore and Merrill Lynch had failed to achieve their performance targets since their appointment in June 1997, the Fund changed its investment management arrangements during the year. Three new managers - Capital International, Threadneedle Asset Management and Wellington International - were appointed, the mandates being effective from 14 March 2002.

Further information relating to these changes is contained in the Fund’s Statement of Investment Principles which is available either on request (contact Tony Worth on 01225 395281 or e-mail tony_worth@bathnes.gov.uk or on the Fund’s website.

Enjoy this issue and please feel free to contact Melanie Clark with any comments you have about this newsletter.

Jean Hinks
Resources Director
Bath and North East Somerset Council

Contents

NATIONAL FRAUD INITIATIVE

Avon Pension Fund is administered by Bath & North East Somerset Council. The Council is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers. To this end from time to time it may use information provided to it for the prevention and detection of fraud and share it with other bodies administering public funds solely for these purposes.

The Council is currently participating in an anti-fraud initiative organised by the Audit Commission and being carried out under Section 6 of the Audit Commission Act 1998. Under this initiative we are providing details of occupational pensioners to the Commission so that they can compare them with information provided by other public bodies to ensure that :

• No pensions are being paid to persons who are deceased.
• Occupational pension income is being declared by housing benefit claimants.
• Re-entry to the scheme is disclosed.

While the object of the exercise is the detection of fraud, previous exercises also uncovered underpayments to pensioners, which were rectified. These exercises therefore help to ensure the best use of public funds.

DID YOU KNOW?

that if you are being paid a spouse’s or child’s pension of less than £21.67 a month (before tax is deducted) you may be able to receive a lump sum instead of being paid a pension.

DID YOU KNOW?

• that if you are being paid a pension which is NOT a spouse’s or child’s pension of less than £16.25 a month (before tax is deducted) and you are over 60 (female) or 65 (male) you may be able to receive a lump sum instead of being paid a pension.
  

• If you think that you can be paid a lump sum instead of the pension you receive please write to the Avon Pension Fund.

CARERS CAN BENEFIT

From 28th October benefits rules are changing so that more carers will be able to claim money to help them care for sick and disabled people. The rules surrounding ICA are quite complicated and claiming does depend on what benefits the sick or disabled person is getting, so before making a claim, it is worth obtaining some advice. Contact your local welfare rights or Citizen Advice Bureau for further advice. Further details can be found in ‘legal ease’ in this issue.

MAKE A NOTE

The Inland Revenue have extended their opening hours, so you can now contact them on 01626 208600 from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturday

TIME FOR A CHANGE?

In Spring 2001 we advised that the vast majority of you have your pension paid each month directly into your bank or building society account – rather than being sent a cheque.

This method of payment has several advantages, the main one being security – no cheque to get lost in the post or mislaid after you’ve received it. From our point of view, payment by direct bank credit helps keep the cost of running Avon Pension Fund down, so is more efficient.

If you don’t currently have your pension paid into your bank or building society account and would like to change to this method, please contact us on the freephone number 0800 0644155 and we will arrange to set this up for you.

Top of page

CHANGES TO THE WAY STATE PENSIONS AND BENEFITS ARE PAID

The Government will soon be modernising the way it pays state pensions and benefits and will phase out order books and girocheques between 2003 and 2005.

By 2005 all state benefits will be paid by direct credit into a bank or building society account. Some banks have already been working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) setting up new ways of allowing people to access banking services at the Post Office. Although not all current accounts will be accessible in this way.

If you don’t have a bank or building society account, from April 2003 it will be possible to have a basic bank/building society account that will allow you to pay money in or get cash out at the Post Office. Or you could choose a simple card account that will allow you to access pensions/benefits at the Post Office, to replace the existing order book system.

The DWP will be issuing information to everyone who receives state benefits telling them about the changes and what they need to do nearer the time.

HOW SMART ARE YOU?

What do Sir Clive Sinclair, Garry Bushell, Carol Vorderman, Sir Jimmy Saville and footballer Andy Harris all have in common? They’re all members of Mensa, and have IQs (intelligence quotients) that fall in the top two per cent of the population. How do you match up?

The average IQ is 100 – by definition, since scoring is adjusted periodically to ensure that 100 is the average mark. Interestingly it has been observed that scores have consistently been rising over the last 60 years. This phenomenon is known as the ‘Flynn effect’ and no one can explain it.

IQ testing originated in France early last century. The tests were called Binet-Simon tests, after their inventors. Their purpose was then to identify people who were of sub-normal intelligence. After the First World War the tests were developed further by David Wechsler at Stanford University in the US. Two standard tests are the WISC (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and the WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale).

Almost all ordinary human tasks require an IQ of 50 or higher. But those with IQs of between 50 and 75 can usually obtain driving licences, can succeed at 71 per cent of all jobs, have normal or above normal IQ children, and live generally successful lives.

At the top end of the scale, Mensa’s gifted members must score well over 130 in IQ tests (the exact entry requirement varies according to the test used).

Smart is as smart does

Only one in 50 people have the required grey cells to become a member of Mensa – so it’s definitely a minority pursuit. And even Mensa admits: "A higher IQ score is not a guarantee that an individual will achieve happiness, maintain sanity, or obtain spiritual growth. A lower IQ score does not mean that an individual will be unsuccessful financially, emotionally, or morally." They add: "There are ‘high IQ’ individuals in all walks of life, and conversely, even traditionally exalted groups such as ‘physicians’ can have individuals who would be measured as having only ‘normal’ intelligence." Reassuring to know!

PUT YOUR GREY CELLS TO THE TEST….

Although this test will not result in an IQ score, it can however give an indication of how well you may do if you attempted a Mensa Home Test or full Mensa supervised IQ test.

1. What number is missing from this sequence?

4 9 16 25 36 ? 64

2. Which four letter word can be attached to the beginning of the following words to form five longer words?

AGE WIDTH IT STAND WAGON

3. Rearrange the letters of ‘ANY TIME’ to give a seven letter word. What is it?
   
4. Replace the blanks in this sentence with two three letter words. The same three letters must be used for both words. What are they?

The woman decided to BLANK a well-known firm of solicitors to BLANK for compensation.

5. What is the value of the top row of the grid?

6. If FP = 10 and HX = 16 what does DS = ?

7. What number should replace the question mark?

8. What letter should appear next in this sequence?

L K J H ?

Scale: 4/8 Very Good. 5/8 Excellent. 6+ Mensa standard.

If you correctly answered six or more, you could be eligible to join Mensa.

For further information on Mensa and a copy of the Home Test: write to:

Mensa, FREEPOST, Wolverhampton, WV2 1BR freephone: 0800 05 63672

e-mail: enquiries@mensa.org.uk or visit: www.mensa.org.uk and apply online.

Answers

1) 49. They are all square numbers. 2) Band. 3) Amenity. 4) Use and sue. 5) 125. A = 20, B = 30 and C = 45. 6) 15. The number is the amount of alphabetical places between the first and second letter. 7) 4. Multiply the first number by the second number to give the third and fourth numbers. 8) G. These letters appear from right to left on the middle row of a keyboard.

Top of page

CARERS – THE UNSUNG ARMY

It can be a lonely business, looking after a relative or partner who is ill, frail or disabled. There are now 5.7 million ‘carers’ in the UK, many of them unaware of the support available to them.

The difficulties of juggling childcare with work are well publicised. But there is another, less talked-about struggle, one that besets millions of UK households: the demands of caring, unpaid, for an elderly, sick or disabled relative.

According to a recent study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, one in ten workers cares for an elderly, sick or disabled relative. The study found that people were more open about the problems of balancing work with childcare than they were about the difficulties of looking after an older adult. In times of crisis, carers said they tended not to take advantage of family-friendly flexible working policies, but instead use annual leave or time owed.

Carers are found in all communities and all age groups. And many people who are carers do not identify themselves as such, and are unaware of the support network available. They may also be missing out on benefits available to them, through lack of knowledge. Many suffer from ill health themselves as a result of the physical and mental demands made upon them by caring.

A significant number of carers are children looking after a parent with a disability or other health problem. A recent study by the Lewisham Young Carers Schools Development Project noted that one in three child carers regularly missed school or had educational difficulties as a result of their family responsibilities.

Carers Centres

A national network of 119 carers centres helps over 100,000 carers across the UK, providing support, advice and companionship. The centres are run by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, founded in 1991. The Trust’s website is www.carers.org, and provides a wealth of information as well as an opportunity to make contact with other carers through chatrooms.

Telephone numbers:

London (020) 7480 7788
Glasgow (0141) 221 5066
Chorley (01257) 234 070

Some facts about caring

• Men are almost as likely to be carers as women – 42 per cent of carers are men.
• 1.7 million devote at least 20 hours a week to caring.
• Almost one million provide care for over 50 hours a week.
• The peak age for caring is 45-64. One fifth of adults in this age group are providing care.
• 18 per cent of carers are looking after more than one person.
• Over a third of all carers report that no one else helps them provide care.

• In total 59 per cent of all carers look after people who do not receive regular visits from health, social or voluntary services.

Taken from the Office of National Statistics’ General Household Survey 1995, which was published in 1998.

DELVING INTO PLACE NAMES

Angles, Saxons, Celts and Romans are just some of the peoples who have settled in our ancient isles. They’ve all left their mark and nowhere is our rich heritage so evident as in our place names. We explore a few…

Ainthorpe dates back to Viking times and means ‘one farm or lonely farm’.

Aintree comes from ‘one tree or a lonely tree’, which may have been a landmark in the distant past.

Bristol means ‘meeting place’ (Old English ‘stow’) ‘by the bridge’ (Old English ‘brycg’).

Beverley is an Anglo-Saxon name, which may mean ‘beaver’s clearing’ or ‘beavers stream’.

Chard appears as ‘Cerdren’ in a document of 1065. The name infers ‘rough ground’ and this may relate to the large surrounding area of commonland or the abundant local flinty stone (chert).

Goole is an Old English word for a ‘small stream’ or ‘ditch’.

Pontefract is a mixture of Latin and French, meaning ‘broken bridge’.

Place names often include a description of the site coupled with the name of a person to whom the land once belonged. ‘Firth’ means ‘woodland’, ton is ‘settlement’ and ‘ley’ is ‘clearing’. So:

Holmfirth is ‘the woodland belonging to Holme’.

Clacton – ‘the settlement of Clacc’s people’.

Hutton Henry – ‘Hutton’ is an Anglo Saxon word for ‘high farm’ and ‘Henry’ was a fourteenth century man who owned the land.

‘Wick’ means ‘farm’, and Keswick means ‘cheese farm.’

A ‘burgh’ was an ancient fort or settlement of pre-Saxon origin, for example:

Middlesbrough – Mydilsburgh is the earliest recorded form of the name. The ‘mydil’ or ‘middle’ was either someone’s name or a reference to Middlesbrough’s location half-way between the great Christian centres of Durham and Whitby.

The origins of some place names continue to arouse debate.

North Curry - Somerset has several ‘Currys’ and none of them have anything to do with the popular Indian recipe! Various theories exist to explain the origin of the name. One suggests that it was the Celtic name of a local stream, another links it with an old word for a boundary. Curry Mallet and Curry Rivel are nearby, and the neighbouring village of Stoke St Gregory used to be known as East Curry.

Top of page

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE LAST WORD

Writing your will may not be the most pleasurable task, but it will give you peace of mind.

Many people assume that if they die without making a will their possessions will automatically go to their spouse. How wrong they can be. The assets of someone who dies intestate are distributed according to a fixed set of rules. These ‘intestacy rules’ divide your estate among your next of kin – that is spouse, children and close relatives – but not necessarily in the way that you might wish. Depending on the value of your estate, this could result in unforeseen outcomes, such as a widow having to sell the family home because other relatives are entitled to a share of its value. And if you and your partner were not married, then he or she could receive nothing at all.

A will is particularly vital if you have young children. In the event (however unlikely!) that both you and your spouse/partner die together, you need to appoint guardians who would be responsible for the care and upbringing of your children.

For the sake of those you love, it’s clearly important to write a legally binding will that clearly expresses your wishes. If you have already drawn up a will you need to review it if you have since married, divorced or had a child.

Drawing up a will

A mistake in the writing of your will makes it invalid – so it’s not a job for amateurs. Some people do draw up their own wills but if you don’t have expert knowledge it is worth paying a solicitor to do it for you. Costs start at around £50 for a straightforward document.

As well as having the obvious legal expertise required, solicitors can also help you frame your will so that your family doesn’t end up paying excessive inheritance tax. Furthermore, their experience in drawing up wills means they can help you envisage possible situations that you might not otherwise think of.

Go ahead – do it now

Personal recommendation is a good way to find a solicitor. Otherwise, contact your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau or the local Law Society for a list. It’s advisable to phone a few and compare costs before making your choice.

Before you meet the solicitor, think through what you want. This saves on the solicitor’s time, and therefore reduces costs.

And, remember, your will isn’t set in stone. You can change it any time you wish!

Vital facts you should know

• Any mistakes in the writing of your will makes it invalid.

• Getting married cancels an existing will.

• Spouses/partners should make separate wills – one isn’t enough.

WILL WORDS

Administrators - the people who are appointed to manage and distribute your estate if you don’t make a will.

Beneficiary - anyone who receives something from your will.

Estate - the total of what you leave.

Executors - people appointed by you to look after your affairs and carry out the terms of your will.

Guardian - someone you make responsible for the welfare and upbringing of any children aged under eighteen.

Intestate - being without a valid will.

Testator - you (ie the person making the will).

Trustee - someone you appoint to manage funds held in trust.

RETIREMENT PENSION

Angela Maxwell, State Benefits and Retirement Consultant, gives us an update on the new legislation and this year’s budget.

Capital limit increased

The savings capital limit, above which you would not be eligible for financial help from the local authority with care home fees, has increased to £19,000. For Scotland it is still £18,500.

A new Department

The Pension Service, which is part of the new Department of Work and Pensions, has produced a short explanatory leaflet about how the system of services provided by local security offices is changing. The new Pension Service offices will work out entitlements to the State Retirement Pension and Minimum Income Guarantee and make relevant payments. You can get a free copy of "The Pension Service: a Guide to our New Service" by ringing 08457 313 233.

Pension Credit delayed

The introduction of the new Pension Credit has been delayed until October 2003. This scheme, to be administered by the Pensions Service, will ensure that no pensioner needs to live on less than a set amount (expected to be about £100 per week for single people or £154 for couples) by topping up pensioners’ weekly incomes to this level. A savings credit will then give pensioners 60p for every £1 of income they have (e.g. from second pensions and savings) which takes them above the savings credit threshold, which is expected to be around the level of the basic state pension, up to a set maximum.

Winter Fuel Payment

In order to be entitled to this year’s Winter Fuel Payment, someone in your household needed to be 60 on or before 22nd September 2002. Each eligible household will get £200. People should automatically receive their payment if they are 60 or over and receive a State Retirement Pension. Also, if you received a payment last year you will not need to claim as long as you have notified any change of address to the Benefits Agency. Other people not on benefits will need to claim by ringing the helpline on 08459 151515. It is very strange that people can still claim for winters 1997/98, 1998/99 and 1999/2000 if they should have had a payment, but that it is now too late to claim for the 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 winters.

Direct Payments for care at home

The Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, has announced that nearly half a million elderly people will be given money directly to pay for care at home in a move designed to ease "bed blocking" at NHS hospitals. The direct payment scheme should enable older people to pay a relative or friend to care for them, provided their local council agrees they are receiving the levels of care they have been assessed as needing. As this is a new scheme, it may take a little time for the information to filter through to hospitals but I would suggest that the patient’s designated hospital social worker would be a good starting point to ask for more details.

Computer training for all

The government has announced that by the New Year, every public library will offer computer training and free internet access to anyone. The £170m "People’s Network" (www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk) is also equipping library workers with the necessary coaching skills as surveys show that ignorance about computers is what deters about half the population from using them!

Rise in Minimum Wage

From 1st October 2002, the national minimum wage rose to £4.20 an hour for workers aged 22 and over, and £3.60 an hour for workers aged 18 to 21.

New rules for Carer’s benefit

From 28th October 2002, the current age barrier for Invalid Care Allowance, (ICA), will be abolished. At present, carers aged 65 or over cannot claim ICA. However, if they qualify before that age, they can continue to receive ICA after they reach 65, even if they have ceased to be a carer or have earnings above the limit, (currently £75 per week). The current payment is £42.45 per week, but you cannot receive this in addition to your state pension! You can only receive the greater of the two benefits. This, in effect, means that many carers will not gain from the change in regulations. But even if ICA cannot be paid because the state pension is greater, it may be worth while making a claim because you will still have an underlying entitlement, which if you are on a low income, could help you qualify for the Carer Premium, (currently £24.80 per week), paid with income related benefits such as the Minimum Income Guarantee or Housing Benefit.

Top of page

MAKING CONTACT

If you have any queries, need advice on your pension, or wish to contact us for any other reason, please write to:

Avon Pension Fund
Floor 3 South
Riverside , Temple Street
Keynsham
BS31 1LA

or call freephone: 0800 0644155

email: avon_pension@bathnes.gov.uk

The Pension Service

08457 313 233

The Benefits Agency Helpline

08459 151515

atease is published for Avon Pension Fund by Prescom Communications and Ruislip Press. Neither the publishers nor the Avon Pension Fund can accept responsibility for the views of this newsletter’s contributions and, although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the contents, readers are advised to take appropriate professional advice before acting on the information or advice in these pages.

Prescom Communications
91 - 97 High Road Ickenham
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB10 8LB

email: atease@prescom.co.uk
website: www.prescom.co.uk

FUND ASSET DISTRIBUTION AT 31 MARCH 2002

FUND ACCOUNT AS AT 31 MARCH 2002

The following table shows the rate of increases that have applied during the last ten years.

LONG TERM INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE

Top of page