Male state pension at 66 from 2016?

artha

Paul_Herring wrote: »

There has, to my knowledge, been no mention so far of moving the age related income tax bands, which means at 65, you're already getting an allowance of £9,490 for this tax year, well above whatever will be announced in the budget for the under 65's. (The rise to £10,000 will happen over the parliament, not all at once.)

Unless, of course, they do spring on us a raising of the age at which you're eligible for what is currently the 65-75 band.

I'm assuming that a move in this direction is likely. It would make sense to give the increased allowance at state retirement age.

I'm also assuming that any increase in personal allowance for under 65s will be added to the over 65s. It will be balanced by decreasing threshhold at which higher rate tax kicks in

Paul_Herring

I'm also assuming that any increase in personal allowance for under 65s will be added to the over 65s

Big assumption there. The pessimist in me says that once the limit is up to £10,000 (minus inflation over the time it gets there in today's money - I've heard nothing about inflation-proofing this figure either) it'll stay there for everyone, including the over 75's.

artha

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Big assumption there. The pessimist in me says that once the limit is up to £10,000 (minus inflation over the time it gets there in today's money - I've heard nothing about inflation-proofing this figure either) it'll stay there for everyone, including the over 75's.

So pensioners are being expected to bail out the profligate spending of the rest of society by taking another hit on spending power

DaveJo

artha wrote: »

I'm also assuming that any increase in personal allowance for under 65s will be added to the over 65s. It will be balanced by decreasing threshhold at which higher rate tax kicks in

Not according to a document at libdems.org.uk/.../Tax%20Plans%20-%20Briefing%20Document.pdf which says :

Increasing the personal allowance to £10,000 per person
The personal allowance for people under 65 is currently £6,475. It is £9,490 for people between 65 and 74 and £9,640 for people aged 75+. Raising all personal allowances to £10,000 in 2010-11 will cost £16.54bn and amount to a £700 income tax cut for the average person. It would mean that almost 4 million people would no longer have to pay income tax.

Paul_Herring

artha wrote: »

So pensioners are being expected to bail out the profligate spending of the rest of society by taking another hit on spending power

What hit? I never suggested that their income tax band would fall, merely that it won't increase above and beyond that given to others.

artha

Paul_Herring wrote: »

What hit? I never suggested that their income tax band would fall, merely that it won't increase above and beyond that given to others.

Of course pensioners will be taking a hit if their current tax status doesn't change to maintain the differential between them and the working population. If indirect taxation (eg VAT) is increased (highly likely) then a pensioner will be worse off

Paul_Herring

artha wrote: »

Of course pensioners will be taking a hit if their current tax status doesn't change to maintain the differential between them and the working population.

I'm failing to follow your logic there. Is it akin to Labour's false argument that "decreasing tax is removing money from the economy"

If indirect taxation (eg VAT) is increased (highly likely) then a pensioner will be worse off

As will everyone. Pensioners are not special in this regard.

artha

Paul_Herring wrote: »

I'm failing to follow your logic there. Is it akin to Labour's false argument that "decreasing tax is removing money from the economy"

As will everyone. Pensioners are not special in this regard.

From their current status pensioners will have less available income to spend on increasingly expensive goods(apart hopefully from basics) compared to equally low income groups that are below pensionable age

Edit i.e.if personal allowance is increased for below 65s and not pensioners then an increase in indirect taxation will hit pensioners

bigfreddiel

mjm3346 wrote: »

These changes have been in place for sometime-
2010 to 2020 women's retirement ages are increasing to 65
2024 to 2026 retirement ages for men and women are increasing to 66
2034 to 2036 retirement ages for men and women are increasing to 67
2044 to 2046 retirement ages for men and women are increasing to 68
so people have had many years to plan for it.

The Tory proposal is to make people work an extra year before they can get the state pension and potentially with less than 6 years notice. This obviously makes less difference to the wealthy as they can afford to retire before receiving the state pension.

The changes you mention above have been in place for sometime - we all know that.
My question was with regard to the Tory manifesto about moving the mens retirement age from 65 to 66 in 2016 rather than 2024 as you mention above.

Cheers

fj

artha

bigfreddiel wrote: »

The changes you mention above have been in place for sometime - we all know that.
My question was with regard to the Tory manifesto about moving the mens retirement age from 65 to 66 in 2016 rather than 2024 as you mention above.

Cheers

fj

glad you posted that. I was considering doing so. As you say the point is about further short term changes not what we have known about and accepted for many years