Ending the pregnant pause
Can you pay in to your workplace pension when you are on maternity leave?
That is the conundrum that had tax and pension experts alike scratching their heads last week.
The point being that if you can afford to contribute while on maternity leave then you should do so to take advantage of the matching employer contributions that you would otherwise miss out on.
Yet no one seemed to really know whether this could be done, or even whether employers would allow it. The answer, it seems, is that it is legally possible but practically unlikely from the employers’ point of view.
That is a shame, as allowing women - or indeed, their partners – to pay pension contributions into their employer scheme would be a brilliant way of narrowing the gender pension gap.
It is nuances such as these that we must try to iron out once the Brexit fog clears and government departments no longer find themselves hamstrung by administration.
The world keeps turning
In one day last week the main Chinese index grew by 5 per cent after Donald Trump tweeted optimistically about trade talks with the country.
In fact, the Chinese market is up 20 per cent so far this year, creeping up gradually as the threat of tariffs seemed to recede.
It has happened almost unawares because we have all been busy getting het up over the B word.
Diversification has always been the key to investing, but never more so than now. While we are stuck in our impasse, the rest of the world is still open for business.
That is a thought any investor should keep in mind.
James Coney is money editor at the Sunday Times
