It's the same the whole world over

Brynsam

kidmugsy wrote: »

Which is what I said above.

But you missed out the fact he was a Tory....so many people blame Labour for all the woes of DB pensions.

le_loup

Brynsam wrote: »

Funny how so many people rushed to criticise him (me too, by the way!) but the man who started the rot in respect of ACT reclaiming was Norman Lamont, Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1993, who reduced the amount of ACT which could be reclaimed. And it was another Tory Chancellor who, in 1988, had gone for the jugular on surpluses.

And part of the ACT removal (started by the Tories as you say) was a 2% reduction in corporation tax. As I remember it, the whole thing was corporate profit boosting and tax take neutral. So what pension funds (and others) lost in income was balanced by a capital gain in corporate worth.

I also don't remember it being greeted with horror by any side at the time. Until, that is that the Daily Mail stared one of it's crusades.

It is surely one of life's mysteries that we can only recall the bad things in budgets and forget the countervailing measures that may be good.

MK62

In terms of damage to DB pension scheme's funding, you can't really compare Lamont's tinkering with Brown's whammy - there's an order of magnitude in difference.


Labour or Conservative is irrelevant really......(to this anyway...:) )

kidmugsy

Brynsam wrote: »

But you missed out the fact he was a Tory....so many people blame Labour for all the woes of DB pensions.

I credited people with the intelligence to know that Nigel Lawson was one of Mrs T's Chancellors.

stoozie1

If the safe withdrawal rate is that low, then surely everyone would be buying annuities?

kidmugsy

Note for the hard of thinking: Mrs T was a Conservative prime minister.

Andy_L

le_loup wrote: »

And part of the ACT removal (started by the Tories as you say) was a 2% reduction in corporation tax. As I remember it, the whole thing was corporate profit boosting and tax take neutral. So what pension funds (and others) lost in income was balanced by a capital gain in corporate worth.

I also don't remember it being greeted with horror by any side at the time. Until, that is that the Daily Mail stared one of it's crusades.

It is surely one of life's mysteries that we can only recall the bad things in budgets and forget the countervailing measures that may be good.

An informative briefing note from the PPI on the ACT removal
https://www.pensionspolicyinstitute.org.uk/uploadeddocuments/PPI_Briefing_Note_22.pdf