The Chancellor

EdInvestor

exil wrote: »

And - let's face it, pensions (other than state or SERPS) have always been a middle class - or public sector - perk, and worth more the higher your salary is. Only about 50% of the population get them, and many who do get fairly derisory amounts.

Quite so. The effect of the dividend tax credit measure is nothing by comparison to the impact the state pension measures coming in in 2010 will have on those who really need pensions .The reduction to 30 years of NI to get the full basic state pension plus the new way of calculating years will wipe out a huge swathe of pension poverty overnight. Instead of only 37% of women (who account for most of the poverty) being entitled to the state pension, more than 70 per cent will be.

Isn't this the kind of policy you expect a Labour Government to follow?

We also need to remember that at the time in 1997, vast numbers of companies were taking pension holidays and could easily afford to make up any deficit by simply resuming normal contributions rather than taking a free ride on the taxpayer.

And there are still huge amounts of public money going into company pensions via contracting out ( more than 13bn pounds a year).This represents a direct transfer of money from the poor to the well off.

Much of this huffing and puffing is mere political spin.

exil

Couldn't agree more. Most of it from the Daily Mail whose definition of "Middle England" is the richest 5% of the population.

wotsthat

There's always someone in any budget who gets the shaft.

It's called robbing Peter to pay Paul. Anyone who thinks that the next budget, Labour or Conservative, will be different is deluding themselves. If the Conservatives get in though it will be called robbing Paul to pay Peter.

Thats what I said, it will take a Conservative Goverment to put this right for pensioners!

Be careful what you wish for - my Grandmother was paying tax hand over fist in 1997 - now she pays none and receives an improved income.

wotsthat

Much of this huffing and puffing is mere political spin.

100% agree. If people can't be bothered to take a balanced view and work out whether they are better off overall then they should join the rest of the sheep and just look at headlines.

By far the biggest negative impact on my pension savings has been the charges imposed by fund managers - these people should wear a mask and carry a bag labelled "swag". In my case I've rectified this problem but they are still charging other people a fortune whilst diverting blame to GB.

dunstonh

The other stealth tax on pensions has been the reduction in rebate on contracting out. Again, people do not see this directly as the money goes from Govt to insurance company.

wotsthat

The other stealth tax on pensions has been the reduction in rebate on contracting out. Again, people do not see this directly as the money goes from Govt to insurance company.

I take the rebate whilst it's available, reduced or not, because it converts a Government promise to provide a S2P into real money that can be invested. I think a future Government will renege on their promise to provide a S2P using a smokescreen of providing a decent flat rate state pension for all.

Don't rebates stop anyway in 2011/12?

EdInvestor

wotsthat wrote: »

Don't rebates stop anyway in 2011/12?

They are schedules to end for money purchase pensions in 2012, but will remain for private and public sector final salary pensions.

Eck

You just need to look at Brown's face to see just what a smarmy git that he really is, this guy should be wearing a mask....:mad: :mad:

Curious_Moose

He took £5 billion a year out of the private sector pension scheme. He may be smarmy, but he's not stupid. He just thought he could get away with it.

In 1997, we had the best funded pension schemes in Europe. Now it's a shambles.

Brown is a disgrace. If he had a shred of integrity, he would resign.

Eck

I didn't say he was stupid, and i wholly agree with what you have said in your post.