Pensions and paying for Covid

Mick70

its a fine line as don't want to put people off paying into private pensions 

Mick70

nobody knows but could include >
state pension age rise by another year 
salary sacrifice schemes to end 
end of triple lock with immediate affect or short notice 
possible end of tax relief above 20% margin
possible end of tax free lump sums when pensions are triggered

Mick70

could also increase the LTA tax 

Albermarle

possible end of tax free lump sums when pensions are triggered

As discussed in another thread this would be very unpopular. Many lower income workers see it as an end of work bonus to be spent on a new car , holidays etc . I think one of the least likely things to happen .

Paul_Herring

I think one of the least likely things to happen .

There was also the (at least) LibDem* suggestion of capping the amount to some small value (£40K)...

* MP's of other parties making the same suggestion are, I'm sure, available. Google not playing ball at the moment, however.

westv

When do we actually find out?

norsefox

As has been said, I would just request that my employer simply agreed to pay me less, and otherwise put the difference straight into the pension scheme. It would actually be less bother than SS for all parties tbh.

Also, I am one of the very fortunate ones at a young age and on just over £80k. Those at my level don’t typically have accountants, and don’t have a huge amount that can be targeted by even the most ambitious chancellor. I already have no child benefit, and in Scotland, pay over £1,500 in PAYE than my English brethren. 

I for one hope that this chancellor is going to realise that austerity and taxation will not resolve this issue. Any scope for that approach was lost in the last 10 years. The only way is to grow the economy out of the hole - after all we’ve been literally paid to borrow money lately.

But then, this Government is still pursuing a truly bewildering non-transitional EU Brexit strategy, so lord knows of what they’re capable. 

kangoora

There may be a tiny percentage of high flying, senior level people who could justify to their employers variable pay based on increased pension contributions (maybe some lower level people in small, enligthened, presumably high tech companies also).

The vast majority of people on SS would simply get told "SS is cancelled, you're back on your pre-SS salary". Can you imagine someone like BT approaching all 100,000 employees and setting different salaries and pension contributions for them all - never going to happen.

NedS

kangoora said:

The vast majority of people on SS would simply get told "SS is cancelled, you're back on your pre-SS salary". Can you imagine someone like BT approaching all 100,000 employees and setting different salaries and pension contributions for them all - never going to happen.

Exactly. If they pass legislation ending salary sacrifice it stops there and then. No company is knowingly going to break the law and risk the wrath of HMRC to chuck the likes of you and me a few extra quid into our pensions. It's hard enough to get some companies to enter into salary sacrifice arrangements now when there's some financial benefit in it for them, let alone if it were to become illegal.

If they stick to their pledge of not touching the big 3 (income tax, NI, VAT), then pensions, CGT and fuel duty all look soft targets for tax rises. I suspect there would be far more opposition to fuel duty rises than axing HR tax relief on pensions or increasing CGT which are perceived to benefit the wealthy.

Anonymous101

kangoora said:

There may be a tiny percentage of high flying, senior level people who could justify to their employers variable pay based on increased pension contributions (maybe some lower level people in small, enligthened, presumably high tech companies also).

The vast majority of people on SS would simply get told "SS is cancelled, you're back on your pre-SS salary". Can you imagine someone like BT approaching all 100,000 employees and setting different salaries and pension contributions for them all - never going to happen.

It’s interesting really when you think about it. Agreeing a lower salary in exchange for higher pension contributions sounds a lot like Salary Sacrifice to me???

Also Its in employers interests to keep salaries down so I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some kind of mechanism thought up to do that whatever changes are proposed.
One thing is for sure it’s not an easy problem to solve and whatever they try to impose will have both intended and unintended consequences.