MSE News: Pensions Minister: 'no straws to clutch to' for WASPI campaigners

Paul_Herring

FaeirieQueen wrote: »

I would like to suggest ...

That looks more like pearl-clutching than straw-clutching.

Could you not have at least formatted it before submitting that screed?

miller

Malthusian wrote: »

but the money already in the pension scheme has not been adversely affected.

So the scrapping of dividend tax relief I've already mentioned doesn't affect money already in a scheme?

miller

Malthusian wrote: »

As nearly everyone saving into a pension nowadays will be putting their money into defined contribution pensions, and more specifically into unit-linked pension funds, the solvency of the pension provider is irrelevant.

You could still end up in the hands of the FSCS, so it's not entirely irrelevant.

dunstonh

So the scrapping of dividend tax relief I've already mentioned doesn't affect money already in a scheme?

dividend allowance has nothing to do with pensions. pensions are tax free.

You could still end up in the hands of the FSCS, so it's not entirely irrelevant.

Anything is possible but FSCS protection on retail pensions (apart from SIPPs) is 100 % of the value. In reality, unit linked pension funds are highly unlikely to end up with the FSCS.

miller

dunstonh wrote: »

dividend allowance has nothing to do with pensions. pensions are tax free.

I didn't say dividend allowance. I said dividend tax relief.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/10798785/True-cost-of-Labours-pension-tax-raid-and-others-since-Seventies.html

Pensions have future political risk(s) whatever flavour they are.

Mortgagefreeman

Number of women working past 70 in UK doubles in four years

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/mar/22/number-of-women-working-past-70-in-uk-doubles-in-four-years-retirement

Aretnap

dunstonh wrote: »

Its not heartbreaking. Half the population missed out on that sort of amount just by being born male rather than female.

And many people will miss out on even more just by having had the temerity to be born in the 1970s or 80s (or worse still, later).

Malthusian

miller wrote: »

So the scrapping of dividend tax relief I've already mentioned doesn't affect money already in a scheme?

Under the 2016/17 changes to dividend tax, dividend tax relief for pensions has been restored, sort of. Though by adding an additional tax onto non-pension dividends rather than giving a tax credit to pension dividends.

What this illustrates is that the government constantly changes the tax rules, and this is going to affect you whether you put money into a pension or keep it in your own hands.

You could of course spend every penny of your income on the grounds that if you spend it the government can't tax it. If you are happy to spend your life in poverty once you are unable to work. Most of us on this forum would regard that as cutting off your nose to spite your face.

When they changed the dividend tax rules in 1997 the government took a larger slice of the capital growth a pension fund accumulates. This is not the same thing as raiding the pension fund itself, although I'll admit to referring to Brown's tax grab as a "raid" when it's suited me.

The likelihood of the government changing the tax rules may change my choice of the tax wrapper I use to save for retirement, but it does not affect my decision to save for retirement.

colsten

Silvertabby wrote: »

I'm a woman, born in 1956, and despair at the antics of WASPI.

As a 1954 woman, I couldn't agree more with you! WASPI do not speak for me.

FaerieQueen must be a parody account, surely?

bigadaj

colsten wrote: »

As a 1954 woman, I couldn't agree more with you! WASPI do not speak for me.

FaerieQueen must be a parody account, surely?

A Martin Lewis alter ego?