I've just done a vlog on Sir Fred's pension reduction. It's £4.7 million less than he wanted which is good, but I'm sure a lot of people will say they wanted more.
But I want to thank the 30,000 people who signed our Give Up The Bonus petition to get RBS to give up the bonuses and for Sir Fred to have his pension shredded. It was promoted on blogs, on Facebook, Twitter as well as the mainstream media or radio, TV and newspapers.
We communicated with our supporters through Facebook, emails, blog posts and vlogs.
It kept the pressure up on RBS and led its new Chief Executive Stephen Hester calling me to negotiate the issue, which eventually led to the bonus payout being reduced from £1b to £175 million.
This petition played its part in clearly making a difference in getting some justice. The pension reduction is not everything we wanted but I tell you what it does reflect. It shows public opinion, be it on Sir Fred's pension or on MPs allowances, is beginning to have a tremendous effect on public decisions.
I'm really pleased that's happened and I hope we can move towards a more fully informed democracy so public opinion counts instead of being ignored.
Here's the vlog.
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Not one newspaper has said what good things our MP's have done.
The Police will be well aware of this issue often castigated and then relied on to be our 'Best Mate' in times of trouble.
Should we allow tolerances or parameters?
On 6 April 2006, HM Revenue & Customs introduced new tax rules for the treatment of pension contributions and retirement benefits.
The following is a summary of those rules.
Lifetime Allowance
There is a limit on the value of retirement benefits that you can draw from an approved pension schemes before tax penalties apply. That limit is called the Lifetime Allowance.
The Lifetime Allowance is £1.75m in the 2009/10 tax year. The following table shows the Lifetime Allowance for past and future tax years.
The Lifetime Allowance - 2006/07 to 2010/11
Tax Year
Lifetime Allowance
2006/07
£1.50m
2007/08
£1.60m
2008/09
£1.65m
2009/10
£1.75m
2010/11 to 2015/16
£1.80m
At the time of payment, a recovery charge will be applied to the value of retirement benefits in excess of the Lifetime Allowance. The amount will depend on how the excess is paid.
If it is paid in the form of a pension, the excess will be subject to a 25% tax charge and the income will be subject to Income Tax. For example, if you had a pension fund of £1.9 million in 2006, £400,000 would be subject to the tax charge of 25% (tax due £100,000) leaving £1.8 million to provide an income.
If the excess is paid as a lump sum, it will be subject to a one-off 55% recovery charge. For example, if you had a pension fund of £1.9 million in 2006, £400,000 would be subject to the tax charge of 55% (tax due £220,000), leaving a lump sum of £180,000.
Your pension scheme's rules may dictate how the excess is paid - either as pension or as a lump sum.
I would love to have paid that tax
Is this was the problem is?
Its quality of life that matters and your visit to Armenia and 'rescuing' those political prisoners is better than any money that Freddy has.
So congratulations on that matter now concentrate on the 'Burma'lady.
Also can you revisit the Mineworkers Pension Scheme issue to improve the quality of life for retired miners.
I do realise that the Labour Party has done fantastic things in mining areas devastated by the past Tory government (Including some of the present regime)as well as setting up compensation schemes for work related diseases. However the Mineworkers Pension Scheme scandal is a matter of principle as was the Freddy pension for this government and electorate.
How would you feel if the Tories set up a very low risk insurance in return for a massive financial bonus gain from your pension?