Work

I'm surprisingly really enjoying work at the moment. It's taken me nearly a year to feel settled in my team, but I'm starting to get to know people better which all helps in feeling happy to be there. I had a review yesterday and my manager is really pleased with me, so hopefully I will get a small pay rise soon. Yay!

I suddenly thought I'm probably one of those people who 'works at Norwich Union' but no one knows what I actually do! I work in Annuities, which is the name for a pension when a person stops paying into their fund and 'purchases' a pension which starts paying out to them in installments. I have to make sure that when we get an application we have everything we need, like birth certificates, money laundering forms, the correct application form etc, and chasing financial advisers if we don't have these things.

Because I'm in External Business, we deal with people who have a pension fund with another provider but have chosen to transfer to us, because we have better rates and can pay them more than their current provider. That's the only reason, apparently we have rates 30% higher than other companies at the moment but we don't have the customer service to match that! So that involves calling the other companies and making sure they have everything they need to send us the client's fund as soon as possible. Once we have everything we need we can set up the policy, issue policy documents and start paying the installments. We also have to inform the HMRC (Inland Revenue) of the payments we make so it can all be taxed properly. (Oh yes, after saving for all those years you still get taxed!)

A month ago, 6 April, there was a huge amount of rule changes in the way pensions are taxed and set up, dubbed 'Pension Simplification' because (in theory!) this is supposed to make taking your pension a lot easier. In reality it's been a busy and difficult time for us, because it's meant attending lots of training sessions and learning many many new rules in time for the changes.

I set up an annuity today which was bought with over £6000 but will only pay out about £30 per month, even less after tax (basic rate is a whopping 22%) - annuities are one of the biggest profit making financial product! Get saving for your future!