Expat Financial Advice a Must When Returning to UK

In the UK, the first week of October is National Work-Life Week, which encourages employers and employees to look at how they can improve their well-being at work and strike a healthier balance between family life and their job. The aim is to help reduce stress among a company’s workforce by offering more flexible ways of working, allowing workers to have time for other priorities in their life.

Of course, it’s not just in the UK where this is an important issue. Many workforces worldwide could do with a better work-life balance, and if you are soon to be moving to another country for work, it’s likely you’ll be wondering what the work culture is like. After all, spending long hours at your workplace without much else to do in your free time may mean you miss out on some of the best aspects of moving to a new country, such as forming a new circle of friends. And too much neglect of your personal life may end up affecting your emotional well-being and this is often one of the main stress factors expats have to deal with.

HSBC and The Local Government Pension Scheme are the latest Defined Benefit Pension Schemes to cause upset and worry to thousands of soon-to-be retirees.

Firstly, HSBC has come under fire for cutting the pension payouts of its former staff by up to £2,500 a year, affecting 50,000 members who joined the company between 1975 and 1996. This group had opted to pay less national insurance (NI) contributions whilst working by “contracting out” of the former state pension scheme. This meant that HSBC also paid less NI contributions. In exchange for paying a lower rate, the bank agreed to pay staff a guaranteed minimum pension when they came to retire. Payment records were however not properly maintained leading pensioners to be either overpaid or underpaid. Numerous firms, including HSBC, had used this arrangement and when the errors were discovered, some began to cut pension payouts to compensate for the overpayment.