Anthony Eden, the British foreign secretary, mooted the idea in 1954, according to official papers released at the National Archives.

It was a response to a request by Sir Winston Churchill, who asked him to give the exile “diplomatic privileges”.

Exiled King Michael was struggling financially after leaving Romania.

He abdicated in 1947, prompting the creation of the communist Romanian People’s Republic.

The country fought alongside the Nazis in World War II but later switched sides and fought with the Soviets. After the war Romania lost land - most of modern day Moldova - to its giant neighbour.

I do trust that he can be accorded diplomatic privileges to the utmost possible extent Sir Winston Churchill Prime Minister

A letter to Sir Winston, who was prime minister at the time, sparked concerns about the wellbeing of the exiled monarch.

The note, which federal flood insurance national program
that King Michael and his family paid national insurance and were not given special treatment, read: “It a pity that we should lag behind other countries in our generosity towards royalty in exile”.

The concerns were taken seriously by the prime minister, who requested that King Michael be given diplomatic dispensations during his stay in the UK and wanted the Foreign Office to oversee the matter.

He wrote: “I have much sympathy with the King of Romania who acted with courage in the difficult situation of his country and was most american national life insurance
treated by the Soviet.

‘Financial difficulties’

“I hope he may be considerately and courteously treated during his exile, which may not be permanent.

“I do trust that he can be accorded diplomatic privileges to the utmost possible extent. I should be glad if you would turn a friendly eye on this exceptional case.”

Confidential Foreign Office documents reveal that the exiled monarch was experiencing “serious financial difficulties”.

It says: “When he left Rumania (sic) his only asset was 500, 000 Swiss francs. A large part of this has been spent and his income is now down to 1,200 a year. He clearly cannot support his wife and children and meet his other commitments on this figure.”

But it stressed there was “no precedent for special fidelity national insurance company on behalf of an exiled monarch”, so little could be done.

Qualified pilot

This leads to the foreign national interstate insurance
solution: “Mr Eden has been considering what can be done to assist King Michael. He
thinks that he should be encouraged to take a job.

“King Michael is a qualified air pilot and he knows a great deal about internal combustion engines.”

The prime minister’s private secretary merely suggested Sir Winston wished to be “kept informed of what comes of
the proposals mentioned”, according to official documents.

The exile and his family were eventually given a few minor benefits, including the provision of free identity documents and exemption from vehicle licences.

The claim by Bruce McFee comes amid a row about the awarding of a vital shipbuilding contract.

The Scottish Executive could give the deal for two vessels to a Polish yard instead of Ferguson in Port Glasgow.

The Clyde business has already begun a programme of lay-offs and may close if it fails to win the executive contract.

Ferguson management have said the yard in Gdansk has been given an unfair advantage in the bidding process.

Long-term savings

Along with a number of politicians, Ferguson chiefs have urged the European National western life insurance Commissioner Neelie Kroes to investigate how the Polish bidder was able to undercut Ferguson.

However, Scotland’s Fisheries Minister Ross Finnie has maintained that he has no grounds on which to exclude the overseas yard.

He said that the situation surrounding the EU investigation into the competition claims was far from clear.

This yard is slowly bleeding to death Bruce McFee SNP MSP

On Monday, Mr McFee, MSP for the West of Scotland, said in the long-term savings would be realised if the contract was kept on the Clyde.

Mr McFee said: “The closure of this yard would have a devastating impact on Port Glasgow and the wider community.

“Last Friday, another 20 members of staff, including the design team, received their P45s while Jack McConnell and his Liberal stooge, Ross Finnie, stand idly by.

“This yard is slowly bleeding to death.”

It is projected that there will be a 3m saving on each vessel if the contract is awarded to the Polish yard.

But Mr McFee said that if the Ferguson yard closed it would result in a 5m benefits bill and a fall in income tax receipts, national insurance contributions and VAT receipts.

Legal challenge

The national health insurance scheme
argument about following clear bidding rules need not apply in this case, he went on.

He has cited a European Union ruling which allows for governments to provide “positive actions or positive discrimination in particular with a view to combating unemployment and social exclusion” .

Mr McFee said: “The door is wide open for Jack McConnell and Ross Finnie to award the Scottish fisheries protection vessels to the Ferguson yard.”

However, a Scottish Executive spokesman said that it was aware of the implications of the contract to the economy, but the rules were clear.

He added: “We are continuing to explore every possible way of assisting Ferguson Shipbuilders within the utica national insurance
of the law.

“It is not in the executive’s gift to award high value public contracts on an arbitrary basis.

“To do so would risk legal challenge by aggrieved bidders and the European Commission and could have implications for other Scottish companies engaged in exports.”

HM Revenue & Customs shut its web site for tax credit applicants on 1 December after penn national insurance
that false applications had been made.

It was first thought that up to 1,500 job centre staff might have had personal details stolen.

The Department for Work & Pensions said a criminal investigation had begun.

The PCS trade union has called for the scale of the problem to be revealed.

It now appears that the criminals have stolen the national insurance (NI) numbers, names and dates of birth of thousands of Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) staff working in job centres in London, Glasgow, Lancashire and Pembrokeshire.

A criminal investigation is now under way and we are working hard with HM Revenue & Customs to resolve the matter Department for Work & Pensions Tax credits ‘targeted by gangs’

One job centre employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told the BBC that 90% of the staff in his office had been affected.

“I went to work on Tuesday. I called the helpline. I was on the phone for 15 minutes and eventually was told that a claim had been made in my name.

“My greatest worry is that if these people have got our identity details they can apply for loans, open up bank accounts and two or three years down the line that’s your credit rating destroyed.”

How the fraud works

The DWP said that this particular fraud seemed to have been going on for a couple of months.

The key to its success is that to make an online application for tax credits, a member of the public has to supply very few details.

Claimants simply have to type in a name, NI number, date of birth, tick a few boxes and lie about their earnings.

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on work and pensions, blamed the desire of Revenue & Customs to increase the uptake of the credits.

“They’ve left it open as almost a fraudsters’ charter by allowing people to make telephone claims and internet claims very easily without some of the checks that should have been made,” he said.

Mr Laws accused ministers of “hushing up” the fraud by claiming that the matter is under police investigation.

A spokeswoman for the DWP said: “We are taking this issue very seriously. A criminal investigation is now under way and we are working hard with HM Revenue & Customs to resolve the matter.

“Our staff are understandably concerned but we are confident from the national insurance number uk
we have that the issue is limited to a specific group.”

Huge losses

The emerging details of this fraud, and its sheer scale, help to explain why the tax credit system has been losing so much money.

It was introduced in its present version in 2003 to pay the new working tax credits and child tax credits.

Ever since it started it has been widely criticised for being what the Public Accounts Committee recently called an administrative “nightmare”.

They highlighted the fact that in its first year of operation (2003/04) 16bn was handed out to 5.7 million families. But 1.8 million of them were overpaid by 2.2bn.

Although this was partly due to administrative and computer problems, the National Audit Office claimed in October that fraud had security national insurance to 460m of that overpayment, along with mistakes by claimants.

Nearly a billion pounds of accumulated overpayment from the first two years of the current tax credit system will probably be written off as doubtful debt.

Governments are often accused of thinking short term.

But a pensions reform Bill, included in the Queen’s Speech, is one of the most consciously long term bits of planning seen for some time.

Looking ahead to 2050, its main aim is to provide a higher level of state pension for many more people over the coming decades.

The big idea is that the link between the basic state pension and earnings will be restored some time after 2012 and the state pension age will be raised to 68 by 2046.

Just as importantly, the pensions of millions of women will be boosted because current regulations mean that many do not accumulate enough national insurance national insurance numbers to qualify for a full pension.

Consensus

There has been widespread support for the plans as outlined in the government’s recent White Paper.

The key thing is that this is long term stuff Richard Brooks, IPPR

“There is broad consensus for the re-indexation of the basic state pension with earnings, reasonable support for raising the state pension age, but less consensus for the model for the new personal accounts,” said Niki Cleal, director of the Pensions Policy Institute.

It is important to note that current pensioners will hardly be affected at all by the plans.

In fact, the younger you are the more important the changes are.

Richard Brooks, an associate director at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), said this was a big change in direction.

“The key thing is that this is long-term stuff,” he said.

“They are trying to rebuild the value of the state pension and stop the spread of means testing.”

Women

If the indexation of state pensions with earnings rather than inflation is combined, as planned, with a cut to 30 in the number of years of work or caring needed to qualify for a full state pension, the biggest winners will be women.

Women will have much to gain from pension reform, says the government

This is welcomed strongly by the trades union american national insurance co, the TUC.

“I think the package is a very big deal - the most radical set of reforms for 50 years,” said Michelle Lewis, pensions officer of the TUC.

But she pointed out that trade unionists are still unhappy that the basic state retirement age will be raised progressively.

“We are still to be convinced that the state pension needs to be raised,” she said.

“Many of our members work in areas where they are pretty worn out by 65.”

Lord Turner

The government launched its consultation earlier this year, in the wake of the proposals put forward by Lord Turner’s Pensions Commission.

Generally these plans are quite well thought through Matt Wakefield, IFS

But the government immediately raised some people’s suspicions that it would try to wriggle out of one of the main national interstate insurance
- that increases in the state pension should be linked to the rise in average earnings.

Back in May, the Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton said a precise date for this would only be announced at the start of the next government and would be “subject to affordability and the fiscal position”.

Since then several ministerial national heritage insurance company
have sought to reassure people that re-indexation really will come in, and by 2015 at the very latest.

But this verbal wrangle highlights a fundamental problem with any piece of long term legislation.

“Generally these plans are quite well thought through,” said Matt Wakefield, an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies,

“But this government can’t commit every government from now until 2050 to keep earnings indexation.”

National pensions savings scheme

One element that will not be included in the new legislation will be Lord Turner’s idea for a new national pensions savings scheme, or “personal accounts”, as the government likes to call them.

Lord Turner, architect of the government’s pensions reforms

This idea is going to be the subject of another White Paper in December and a further round of consultation.

This has been controversial with the private pensions industry hoping to get a slice of the business running such accounts for the state.

As currently proposed, all employers who do not currently pay into a pension scheme for their staff will have to start doing so.

Employers will pay 3% of salaries, employees will pay 4% and the government will contribute 1%.

There is a growing suspicion in some quarters though that this may lead to an example of the law of unintended national life insurance co
.

The fear is other employers might cut their current, higher, level of pension contribution down to the minimum level required by the Personal Accounts system.

“I think with the NPSS it is almost defining the level of contribution the government thinks is acceptable,” said Ian Price, head of pensions at investment firm St. James’s Place.

“So what you could have is an employer saying ‘what I need to have is a scheme requiring a maximum contribution of 8% - if it’s good enough for the NPSS (an early name for Personal Accounts) why isn’t it good enough for us? ”

The “citizen’s pension” would be paid to those who had lived in the UK for at least 20 years, rather than being based on national insurance contributions.

Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said the plan would national income life insurancely help women, who lose out under the current system.

A government-commissioned report on the future of pensions is expected next week to suggest a pension age of 67.

The Pensions Commission was asked by the government to look into the pensions system, which many experts believe has reached crisis point.

‘Raw deal’

Before this year’s general election, the Lib Dems promised a “citizen’s pension” to all people over 75.

In their latest plans, they are extending the pension to all over-65s.

They say some women receive a poor deal from the present system, which is based on national insurance contributions, because they are more likely to have taken breaks from working.

MAIN PROPOSALS New citizen’s pension of 109 per week for all over-65s, based on residency not national insurance contributions Raise state pension age to 67 - but only in 25 years time Scrap second pension and savings credit Employees have to opt out rather than opt into company pension schemes Start new pension scheme for those on low incomes

The Lib Dems instead want people to qualify for the pension if they have lived in the UK for at least 20 years, lincoln national life insurance
of whether or not they worked.

And they would set the new pension at 109.45 per week - up from the existing basic state pension of 82.05.

The payments would rise each year in line with increases in average earnings, not prices.

Consensus?

The party says it would pay for the plans by scrapping the state second pension and savings credit.

It would also raise the state pension age to 67, although this would only happen in 25 years time.

Mr Kennedy said: “We have one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world, and one of the most complex systems. Women, in particular, suffer real discrimination.

“I believe that there is now a broad consensus that we need a state pension that is universal - a Citizen’s Pension.”

Change for MPs

The Lib Dems say they want a review to examine how to change public sector pensions so they are more affordable in the long term.

Members of Parliament should lead by example, they say.

HAVE YOUR SAY This problem of pensions has crept up over the years and ignored R. Jopson, Accrington Send us your comments

MPs currently at present receive one 40th of their final salaries for every year of service.

Bringing them into line with other public sector works would mean them receiving one 60th of their salaries.

The Lib Dems do not want to force people to join company pension schemes.

But people would have to opt out of their firm’s scheme rather than the current system of having to opt in.

For those on lower incomes, there would be a new pensions scheme run by National Savings.

National flood insurance

Pensions Secretary John Hutton is due on Thursday to set out how he will judge the national car insurance
from the Pensions Commission, which is expected to call for a higher state pension and a rise in the pension age to 67.

The Conservatives say they want to wait to see the report before producing firm plans.

But the party has branded previous versions of the Lib Dem citizen’s pensions idea “illinois national insurance company
“.

Instead of moving to a system based on residency, the Tories suggest a system of credits for people who are not working because they care for children or sick relatives.