Are you a lone parent in Edinburgh seeking employment? Need help with your CV? Interview skills? Digital skills?
Why not join our 6 week Employability & Digital Skills Course?
Starting Tuesday 18th January 10am-11.30am. Creche and bus tickets provided.
Contact Stacey on 07570106789 or stacey.powchscott@opfs.org.uk for more information or to register your interest.
New pension regulations came into force on 30 November 2021. The new regulations permit Trustees to block or suspend a suspicious-looking pension transfer if they believe that the transfer could be to a scheme that is fraudulent.
These new regulations could prove to be the most significant development in preventing pension scams.
Paul Higgins of Pension Justice, a law firm that has helped recover millions of pounds in mis-sold pensions, says: “I am delighted that the Government has brought in this new rule, and I hope that this will prevent pension scams taking place so that pension investors will not lose their life savings.
“Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of thousands of people who have previously taken their money out of pensions and handed over their life savings after being badly advised to invest in worthless, unregulated investments like carbon credits, ethical forestry, storage pods, to name but a few”.
One of Pension Justice’s clients, Mrs F from Burnley, lost her entire life savings worth over £157,000 after being persuaded by an “advisor” from Asset Management Advisory Services (AMASS) Ltd (t/a AMASS Europe) to transfer her pensions into a SIPP and “invest” in an EPS Portfolio with Avalon.
The advisor paid themselves £3,842.10 in commission and then arranged to “invest” Mrs F’s £149,000.00 in what turned out to be unregulated funds promising unrealistically high returns.
The investments subsequently failed, and Mrs F lost her entire life savings. It then transpired that the advisor and their company had minimal authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority and were not authorised to provide advice on pensions and investments.
Pension Justice took up the case with the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) and recovered compensation of £85,000.00 on behalf of their client which was the maximum payable under the scheme.
Paul says: “One of Mrs F’s pensions was a gold-plated defined benefit scheme pension with Proctor and Gamble. Under the new rules Proctor and Gamble could have prevented the transfer from taking place and, in which case, Mrs F would not have lost her life savings.
“Unfortunately, we know that there are still hundreds of thousands of pension investors who have lost all their pensions and are facing a miserable retirement with little or no money apart from their state pensions. Some are even being forced to carry on working way past retirement age”.
Paul and his team at Pension Justice have managed to recover sums up to £189,591.37 for his clients, many of whom have been scammed by cold callers and told that they could “double their money” or are promised potentially incredible returns if they transfer their hard-earned pension pots.
A 37-year-old man was arrested & charged with drugs offences on Monday (03/01/22) after officers on mobile patrol stopped and searched a vehicle on Ferry Road, recovering cannabis valued at £17,000.
The man will appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.
Communities and schools are set to benefit from a new network of “Wee Forests” in towns and cities across Scotland, backed by £500,000 Scottish Government funding.
Led by NatureScot, the programme aims to give people the opportunity to help tackle the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss by creating and caring for their own forest in their own neighbourhood.
To create each forest, around 600 native trees will be planted by “Wee Foresters” in an area the size of a tennis court. Volunteer keeper teams will look after the forests over the long term and schools will use the forests for outdoor learning.
Supported by Earthwatch Europe, people will also take part in citizen science activities to raise awareness of climate change and the value of urban trees. This will include monitoring the butterflies that use the forests and measuring how much carbon is captured by the trees as they grow.
Planting has already begun – the first demonstration Wee Forest was planted at West Pilton Park last October, and further wee forests followed in the capital’s East Pilton Park and Mount Vernon.
NatureScot is working with local authorities and a number of Scottish environmental organisations to help roll-out the programme this year.
Wee Forests will be planted in Glasgow, East Ayrshire, Edinburgh (above), Aberdeen, Dundee and West Lothian.
Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said: “The horrors of the Covid pandemic have changed how many of us view and value nature, and we know people want to spend more time outdoors for the benefits it brings to their mental and physical health.
“We want to improve access to green spaces and provide equal opportunities for everyone to connect with nature. Wee Forests are an ideal way of achieving this, whether as a place for children to play or a quiet spot to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.
“This new network of Wee Forests is a great example of partnership working between the public, private and voluntary sector and is an important legacy of COP26 when the eyes of world were on Glasgow and the future of our planet.
“As we now look forward to COP15 on biodiversity, innovative projects like this will showcase to the rest of the world how Scotland is leading the way in our action to tackle the twin crises of climate change and nature loss.”
Earthwatch Europe CEO Steve Andrews said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with NatureScot to expand the Wee Forest movement across Scotland.
“Getting communities involved in planting and ongoing citizen science at their local Wee Forest is an exciting opportunity to connect people with nature, whilst providing vital data on forest growth and environmental benefits.”
NatureScot Chief Executive Francesca Osowska said: “Wee Forests are a fantastic way for people to connect with nature close to home.
“We’re delighted to see our demonstration project being extended to create many more pockets of nature-positive green space across our towns and cities, as a living legacy of COP26.
“And as we look towards COP15 and the huge challenge of halting and reversing nature loss, it’s projects like this that are giving communities the chance to help restore nature and tackle climate change by contributing to Scotland’s tree planting targets.”
The Prime Minister last night updated the public on the government’s ongoing actions to tackle COVID-19 and prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, including implementing Plan B measures, standing up local Nightingales to create extra capacity, buying more antivirals per person than anywhere else in Europe, significantly increasing testing capacity and rolling out the vital booster programme.
The Prime Minister thanked vaccinators for their enormous dedication over the festive period as well as everyone who came forward for a jab.
He welcomed the success of the Get Boosted Now campaign in delivering 10 million extra boosters across the UK and doubling the rate of vaccination from 450,000 doses a day to a peak of more than 900,000.
Outlining the significant protection offered by the booster jab, the Prime Minister reiterated his call for every eligible person to get their booster – with 2 million appointments available this week alone.
In his statement the Prime Minister also acknowledged the disruption to the workforce caused by the spread of Omicron and set out further measures the government is taking to address this.
He announced the Government will provide 100,000 critical workers in England with free lateral flow tests to help keep essential services and supply chains running.
Critical workers will be able to take a test on every working day and the provision of precautionary testing will be for an initial five weeks.
This will help to isolate asymptomatic cases and limit the risk of outbreaks in workplaces, reducing transmission while covid cases remain high. These critical workers are those who work in essential services, cannot work from home and are at risk of infecting each other – for example, due to working together in an enclosed space.
People covered by the scheme will include those who work in critical national infrastructure, national security, transport, and food distribution and processing. This includes vital roles in Border Force, Police and Fire and Rescue Services control rooms, electricity generation, test kit warehouses and test surge labs.
The full range of critical workers have been identified by the relevant departments and Government will contact these organisations directly on the logistics of the scheme this week.
Roll out will start from Monday 10th January. Tests will be separate from public sectors who already have a testing allocation with UKHSA, such as adult social care or education, and separate to those delivered to pharmacies and homes, so those channels will not be impacted by the new scheme.
The UK Government are now distributing around 600,000 packs of 7 tests on gov.uk directly to homes every day (more than 50% higher than last week).
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will update MSPs on the latest Coronavirus situation in Scotland in a virtual Holyrood session this afternoon at 2pm.
Police in Edinburgh are appealing for the assistance of the public in tracing a 28-year-old Alathea Byrne – known as Alice – who is missing from her home in Portobello.
Alice was last seen by her family at her home around 2am on Saturday, 1 January. She met friends in Marlborough Street and left a flat there around 10am on Saturday.
She is described as white, around 5ft 6ins in height and of medium build with short black hair. When she was last seen she was wearing an orange jacket, black top, black jeans and white trainers. She was carrying a black rucksack.
Inspector Keith Scott said: “It is out of character for Alice not to keep in contact with her family and friends. We are becoming increasingly concerned for her wellbeing and we are working to trace her as soon as possible to ensure that she is safe and well.
“Searches and enquiries have been ongoing since she was reported missing, and we are now asking the public for any assistance they can provide.
“I would urge anyone who has seen Alice since Saturday morning, or anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact us as soon as possible.
“I would appeal to Alice herself to contact us if she sees this appeal. Contact 101 quoting reference 0647 of 2 January.”
