Pensions - Articles - Cut in pension tax allowance unfair

 “Cutting this allowance flies in the face of efforts to make retirement more flexible. As soon as someone draws a pound of taxable cash using the pension freedoms, the amount they can save in a Money Purchase pension would be slashed from £40,000 to £4,000. This will have a profound impact on their ability to go on working and contributing worthwhile amounts to a pension. Starting to draw taxable pension cash becomes even more of a cliff-edge than at present. We should be trying to make combining work and drawing a pension easier not harder. We also need to know what will happen for people who have already drawn taxable cash expecting to be able to go on saving £10,000 per year. Any retrospective change would be totally unfair to savers."

 On the plan to ban pension cold-calling, Steve Webb said: “This announcement is very welcome, but the ban needs to be introduced swiftly and be as comprehensive as possible. It needs to include unsolicited texts and emails as well as phone calls, and must cover a broad range of pension and investment cold-calling. The consultation must be followed by swift action."