Stuart Garner was convicted of three offences in 2022 after illegally investing others’ retirement savings in his own businesses

The disgraced former owner of Norton Motorcycles should have served jail time for his role in the multi-million-pound pension fraud, the chair of the Pensions Ombudsman service has told a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal.

The comments by Anthony Arter will be viewed by victims as a thinly veiled criticism of a prosecution run by the Pensions Regulator against former Norton boss, Stuart Garner, who was convicted of three pensions offences in 2022 but avoided prison because the regulator did not allege dishonesty.

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Just one of the messages that may surprise fans of Britain’s chancellor

Economic growth… relies on employees being more effective

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) looks ahead five years in its forecast of economic growth and the public finances to help the chancellor judge what he can afford. Analysis to accompany the spring budget by the OBR claims productivity, as measured by the output per worker per hour, will increase significantly between now and 2029, despite being almost flat for the last 15 years.

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Chancellor criticises BBC presenter after he said British economy was ‘ravaged by economic shocks’ and ‘stagnant’

Jeremy Hunt has accused a Today presenter of being “not worthy of the BBC” after he suggested the budget did not do enough to revive Britain’s “stagnant” economy.

Towards the end of what was otherwise a relatively good-tempered interview, Amol Rajan said:

This might be, and you’ll say you don’t want it to be, one of your last big acts in politics. Do you really think you’ve read the moment?

This is a country ravaged by economic shocks, at best drifting, at worse, stagnant. We all know about its potential, but we’ve had seven quarters of falling GDP per head, that’s been revised downwards.

I think the overall characterisation that you’ve just given of the British economy is unworthy of the BBC.

Looking beyond just employees, though, personal taxes are still going up significantly, with threshold freezes exceeding value of NI rate cuts by £20bn (£41bn versus £21bn). What’s going on? £8bn is being raised by the freezes to thresholds for employer NI, which in time should feed through into lower pay levels for employees. And there is a big group of losers: pensioners, who are already exempt from NI but affected by freezes to income tax thresholds. All 8 million taxpaying pensioners will see their taxes increase, by an average of £1,000 – an £8bn collective hit. This approach is justified with tax cuts focused on working-age employees and the self-employed, who currently pay higher rates of tax than pensioners or landlords, but it is a staggering turnaround from the approach of Conservative governments since 2010, who have generally focused support on pensioners.

This Conservative government has shown their true colours, pensioners are not their priority. They would rather cut taxes for the big banks than look after those who have given so much for so long to our society.

We’ve done an enormous amount for pensioners. This government introduced the triple lock … we have really prioritised pensioners.

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Banned from making transfers or told they must wait to retire, older people tell of fears for their life savings

You’ve been dutifully paying into your company or private pension for years, maybe even decades, but then – perhaps when you’re just about to retire – they suddenly change the rules.

As a result, it looks like you may be hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year worse off.

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Annual letter from Teachers’ Pensions, which administers scheme for DfE, asks about new relationships

Partners of retired teachers who have died are repeatedly being asked to confirm whether they are in a new relationship, in a process described as “humiliating and intrusive” by teaching unions.

Those who fail to reply promptly face losing their dependant’s pension.

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Research on life expectancy and birthrates shows that ill health makes status quo unsustainable

• ‘I can’t take it much longer’: workers too young for UK pension

The retirement age will have to rise to 71 for middle-aged workers across the UK, according to research into the impact of growing life expectancy and falling birthrates on the state pension.

The UK pension age of 66 is set to rise to 67 between May 2026 and March 2028. From 2044, it is expected to rise to 68.

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Report concludes government fails to fix basic mistakes and civil servants ‘asleep at the switch’

More than 200,000 pensioners were left out of pocket by a total of £1.3bn last year and many will never be repaid because of lax record keeping, according to parliament’s spending watchdog.

Computer errors at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) meant 165,000 also missed out on £1.2bn in the previous year, the public accounts committee (PAC) found.

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Opinium poll for the Observer reveals the public is unimpressed with Jeremy Hunt’s attempt to woo them by trimming national insurance

Rishi Sunak has received no poll bounce after cutting taxes in last week’s autumn statement, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer .

Following a week in which the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, described a reduction in national insurance as “the biggest tax cut on work since the 1980s” Labour’s lead has increased to 16 percentage points over the Tories.

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Maintaining guarantee will put ‘insurmountable pressure’ on government to increase retirement age, according to institute

Maintaining the triple lock on state pensions could add as much as £45bn to the welfare bill by 2050, putting “insurmountable pressure” on the government to increase the minimum retirement age, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

In a report published ahead of the release next week of official data for earnings growth, which will be used to set the annual increase in pensions, the IFS estimates spending on retirees could rise by a further £2bn from April 2024.

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