Government scraps pension cap

[JonathanM]

I've just read that the average pension pot is £37K. I'm guessing that must include people who don't have a pension at all. Also that Jeremy Hunt has said that the government could have brought in a deal just for NHS clinicians, which would only have cost £30m, but that they left it too late to work out the scheme. So they have had to take the cap off for everyone instead.

 

[JohnD]

Perhaps we should have a government who assesses if a person deserves the money and takes it away from those who don't, pass the test. That seems to be a flavour of Marxist–Leninist communism.

For every Paris Hilton there are 10 skiving layabouts claiming benefits because they don't want to work.

That would make an interesting change from the current government thought process

-we have shortages of NHS workers at all levels

-at most levels it is difficult to recruit and retain workers because pay has stagnated and fallen below inflation, and workload is intolerable

-we will therefore tell them they can't have a compensating pay rise

- some prosperous NHS Consultants are retiring early because the badly-designed NHS pension system is not compatible with the Pension Tax System for highly paid earners

-we will therefore change the tax system to give huge tax benefits to all prosperous people

 

[Brigadier]

What makes you think Paris Hilton is rich? The crap put out by the very newspapers you despise. Most of the time it’s all ballcocks. Publicity put out by….her publicist. You or I or just about anyone on the planet had no fking idea of the true worth of Paris Hilton or many other 'celebrities'. Often comes out only when they are dead. Micheal Winner being a prime example - everyone thought he was living in a £50m mansion but he was mortgagee up to and beyond his eyebrows and left virtually feck all.

Robert Maxwell. There’s another one. Just wait till that we’ll known 'billionaire' Trump dies and his finances are unravelled. I’d be surprised if he has a pot to pîss in.

Another thing; the "rich" "celebrity" will often get stuff for free (or even be paid to have it).

As Withnail so eloquently put it, "Free to those who can afford it. Very expensive to those who can't."

 

[Lower]

That would make an interesting change from the current government thought process

-we have shortages of NHS workers at all levels

-at most levels it is difficult to recruit and retain workers because pay has stagnated and fallen below inflation, and workload is intolerable

-we will therefore tell them they can't have a compensating pay rise

- some prosperous NHS Consultants are retiring early because the badly-designed NHS pension system is not compatible with the Pension Tax System for highly paid earners

-we will therefore change the tax system to give huge tax benefits to all prosperous people

Do you think we should deny head teachers the same pension tax break as doctors? How about air traffic controllers?

 

[JohnD]

Do you think we should deny head teachers the same pension tax break as doctors? How about air traffic controllers?

I think a person who already has well over a million in his pension plan, and plenty more spare wealth, does not need extra tax favours to prevent him falling into poverty in old age, and to avoid his heirs paying inheritance tax.

Don't you?

 

[Lower]

I think a person who already has well over a million in his pension plan, and plenty more spare wealth, does not need extra tax favours to prevent him falling into poverty in old age, and to avoid his heirs paying inheritance tax.

Don't you?

I think you’re avoiding the key point.

 

[JohnD]

I think you are.

 

[motorbiking]

I think a person who already has well over a million in his pension plan, and plenty more spare wealth, does not need extra tax favours to prevent him falling into poverty in old age, and to avoid his heirs paying inheritance tax.

Don't you?

It sounds like you were in favour of raising the cap rather than removing it. I think that would have been reasonable - perhaps scrap the 2014 rule and lift it to 1.5M for everyone. That seems fair.

As a reminder in the current model "well over a million" = £1,073,100.

 

[JohnD]

It sounds like

That is an invention of your own.

 

[motorbiking]

You prefer the way it was?

 

[JohnD]

I'm sure I have plainly expressed that a person with well over a million in their pension plan, plus plenty more to invest, does not need extra tax benefits and the potential to avoid inheritance tax.

That's the only question on the table today.

 

[motorbiking]

A different table perhaps. But I asked if you prefer the way it was or the way it is to be? Surely you have an idea which one you like more or least.