Pensions, tax, insurance and money worries

A landmark legal decision announced today could improve the pension rights of unmarried couples working in the public sector. Denise Brewster, from Coleraine, was refused payments from her former partner’s pension after he died suddenly in December 2009. They had been living together for a decade. She argued she was the victim of ‘serious discrimination’. Now the supreme court has ruled that the refusal to pay her the pension was unlawful. According to the BBC, ‘the result could have implications for the rights of co-habiting couples working in the public sector – including nurses, teachers, civil servants and police’. Tax The Times reports that ‘Britain’s tax burden is set to rise to its highest level for more than 30 years as the Government tries to eliminate the country’s persistent budget deficit’. The paper adds that tax receipts will exceed 37 per cent of national income for the first time since Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1986 when she was aggressively paring back the size of the state.