Welfare cuts to be made over the coming years will leave low-paid families thousands of pounds worse-off despite the coalition government’s claim that there will be “no losers” from its austerity measures.

Research carried out by the TUC has found that a family with two children, with both parents in minimum wage jobs, could lose more than £2,700 a year by April 2013 as a direct result of changes to the tax credits and benefits systems.

The loss to the lowest income groups could be much higher once housing benefit is capped, elements of working tax credit and child benefit are frozen and the child trust fund is abolished. Middle

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Finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro are meeting in Brussels Monday afternoon, before being joined by their 10 non-euro EU counterparts for more discussions Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Their last get-together in mid-January had been characterized by relative calm in European bond markets, after November and December had brought them together in emergency meetings and hastily called phone conferences to patch together a 67.5-billion-euro rescue loan for Ireland and seek to convince investors that the crisis wouldn’t spread to Portugal or much larger Spain.

But hopes that a promised overhaul of the currency union’s crisis strategy will prevent Ireland, Greece and possibly Portugal from eventually having to default on part of their massive debts — as many economists expect — dimmed last week, when European leaders fought over yet another proposal on how to tackle the crisis.

European leaders say they will present their “comprehensive response” at a summit at the end of March, but with markets growing increasingly impatient and dubious over the contents of that response, they have left their finance ministers to work through an ever-expanding agenda.

As the March deadline draws closer, pressure from the eurozone’s so-called periphery is building up again. Portuga

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Commentary this week: Tuesday: A Dab of Color: Transportation Thursday: Ranking Economic Data Note: This is a first cut at ranking economic data. I’ve marked several indicators with ‘***’ indicating I think this data is currently more important than usual. For each indicator I’ve included a link to the source, and a link to the current graph gallery. Saturday: Participation Rate Update

Earlier:

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Leading group income protection specialist IUS Group is set to move its group life insurance team to Zurich Life.

Approached by insuranceNEWS.com.au last week, IUS Group MD George Hodgson said the company is due to make an announcement this week.

Zurich Life Australia GM Colin Morgan says the company wants to become a major player in the group life insurance market and the acquisition of the IUS Group team is part of that push.

“We have acquired a top-quality team and this will provide Zurich the opportunity we wanted to further build our group life capability,” he said.

“The IUS team has built a well-respected group life business within Australia.”

IUS GM Life Phil Collins will head up the group life insurance division within Zurich Life.

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The Australian life insurance industry ended the 2010 financial year with good growth for net premiums and increased after-tax profits, according to the latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) figures.

The figures also show the life industry has bounced back from the global financial crisis that slowed growth during 2009.

APRA says new premiums for the 12 months ending June 30 were $40.1 billion, up from $38.7 billion in the corresponding 2009 period.

Net policy payments were $36.9 billion in 2010, up from $35.4 billion in 2009.

And net profits for the life industry were $2.7 billion for the year, up from $1.9 billion in 2009.

The improved profit position was despite a rise in total expenses for life insurers, up from $21 billion in 2009 to $25.1 billion in the last financial year.

With stronger financial performance from life insurers, total assets also rose slightly from $214.1 billion in 2009 to $214.4 billion in the 12 months ending June 30.

CommInsure led the net policy revenues for the 2010 financial year with inflows of $979 million, closely followed by AMP with $968 million.

Axa Australia, which will soon be merged with AMP, delivered net policy revenue of $847 million which will produce combined revenues in excess of $1.8 billion a year, well ahead of its nearest competitor CommInsure. 

Net profits after tax for the combined businesses will be almost $700 million, again well ahead of CommInsure’s $388 million that is reported in the latest APRA figures.

The report says AMP is the most profitable life insurer, with an after-tax profit of $529 million.

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