Growing anger at move to go ahead with relief cuts
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Pension experts are outraged that Chancellor Alistair Darling is ploughing ahead with restrictions to higher-rate tax relief on pensions, having ignored near unanimous calls to reduce the annual allow-ance instead.
Product providers, advisers, the National Association of Pension Funds and the Tax Incentivised Savings Association agreed the move would be disastrous to pension savers and calculated that reducing the annual allowance would raise the same tax.
Standard Life head of pensions policy John Lawson labelled this “the worst piece of pension law in living memory”.
He says: “Reducing the annual allowance is simple. Anyone who has any experience in pensions supports this, yet the Government has gone ahead blindly.
“Throwing higher-earners out will destroy group pensions. We will get a dumbed-down 8 per cent contribution and pensioners will not be able to buy a bacon sandwich.”
National Association of Pension Funds chief executive Joanne Segars says: “The Government should have abandoned its damaging pension plans, which will only serve to weaken pension provision for all.”
Mercer retirement specialist Eleanor Dowling says: “The Government has failed to listen to the industry regarding the vast expense and complexity of these proposals.”
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