Three things we learned this week

Retirement Planner's round up of the top pensions stories of the week.

Aegon pays out £20k after pension transfer delay

Provider Aegon has paid almost £20,000 compensation to a customer after a delay in administering his pension led to him missing an investment opportunity.

The Pensions Ombudsman ruled that Aegon delayed the payment of complainant J A Thomas' funds from its own SIPP into an IPS Partnership vehicle.

Thomas had planned to invest £500,000 of his fund in a National Savings and Investments (NS&I) bond with a fixed interest rate of 4.25% per year compound.

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Govt and pension schemes to meet over £20bn investment plan

Ministers and pension scheme representatives will meet every fortnight over the next three months to plan funding in UK infrastructure.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Treasury, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) stipulates officials will meet twice a month or more to help boost infrastructure allocations above 2.5% for schemes.

A framework for the infrastructure plan, announced during chancellor George Osborne's autumn statement last year, will then be revealed in the 2012 budget.

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Insurers and charities heap pressure on Govt for LTC reforms

Insurers and charities have urged the government and other party leaders to agree on substantial reforms to the social care system that is causing further damage to the NHS.

They also noted employers were increasingly suffering the departure of staff who have been forced to care for family members in the absence of sufficient state support.

Their calls were tempered by John Redwood MP, chair of the Conservative economic affairs committee, who claimed the reforms identified by the Dilnot Report focused too heavily on "trying to protect the inheritance of children of the elderly"

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