Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Pensions ‘may be target’ claims former minister

Post Thumbnail

A former pensions minister has warned pension tax relief is likely to be cut by the chancellor in the Budget later this month.

Sir Steve Webb, who masterminded pension freedoms, said Philip Hammond would be looking to save money by slashing the allowance workers can pay into their pots every year.

He said the direction of travel the current government was taking with regards to pensions was to reduce the tax benefits available to investors, favouring investments such as ISAs instead.

Sir Steve was talking at a summit hosted by wealth management firm Mattioli Woods in Aberdeen yesterday.

He said: “Which bit of the system costs lots of money, is really complicated and you’ve already dipped into it six times in the last seven years to find some cash? Pension Tax Relief is what he’s thinking. You can never say 100% certain with budgets but it’s got to be something they are looking at, I am sure of that.”

Sir Steve added: “The Treasury has been cutting back on relief on pensions and boosting relief on ISAs. That’s why they have been very slowly abolishing pensions. Slight exaggeration, but not by much. That’s the direction of travel they are going in. They would like to keep bumping up the ISA limit and bumping down the pension limit, as the cash might not be taxed for 40 years.”