With just one week to go until Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his first Autumn Statement, Pensions Age takes a look at what is predicted and the pensions industry’s expectations.

With more insight than most, former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann hopes that Hammond will recognise the “risks of selling Lifetime ISAs to people who would be much better off using pensions for their retirement savings”.

“I hope that the Chancellor will recognise these risks and make changes in the Autumn Statement. We should not confuse people about the best way to save for retirement - pensions are unquestionably the best for the vast majority of people. If the Treasury does not understand the risks, then I hope the FCA will clamp down on how these products are sold, to make sure there must be careful suitability checks and risk warnings before people lock money into the LISA, thinking this is an appropriate way to save for retirement,” she said.

Also on the subject of the Lifetime ISA, AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby thinks it is “far too down the road for major changes” but it is worth “keeping an eye on for any surprise changes to the rules”.

“The exit charge seems overly punitive given that exit fees have been capped at 1 per cent for pensions and the maximum age requirement of 40 restricts the product from some core groups that could benefit, such as the self-employed.”

A wish that seems to come up every year is the scrapping of the Lifetime Allowance. Alliance Trust Savings head of platform proposition Sara Wilson has called for Hammond to scrap the lifetime allowance for pension savings, along with others from the pensions industry. The LTA has been reduced almost bi-annualy over the past few years and Wilson believes that continuous reductions along with the taper introduced last April bring more “confusion and complexity to the market”.

Despite this, Wilson doesn’t have much hope that the Chancellor will answer these calls, not without also reducing tax relief contributions. “The current system of paying tax relief to savers at their highest marginal rate means those on high salaries benefit far more from the government top up than those on low salaries. A widely expected shake-up of pensions taxation didn’t materialise in the 2016 Budget, but with Theresa May talking of a new emphasis on fairness, it could now be on the cards,” she said.

St. James’s Place divisional director for pensions and consultancy Ian Price also thinks the Chancellor should overturn his predecessor George Osborne’s tapered annual allowance.

“The problem with the taper is that it’s an incredibly complex and confusing way to curb pension tax privileges at a time when the government itself is aiming for greater simplicity. Recently departed pensions minister Baroness Altmann branded the rule as “fiendishly complicated”, and her predecessor Steve Webb has even called it “absurd”.

Selby noted that the increasing cost of it the government will not have gone unnoticed to the Chancellor. “Whilst it is unlikely he will tear up the existing system at a time of such constitutional turmoil for the UK, there is a chance that we could see some further tweaks to the existing pensions allowances to raise cash for the Treasury. All eyes will be on whether he slips in any further reductions to the annual or lifetime allowances. This would be disappointing as it would hit middle income savers and further undermine pension savings in the UK at a time when he should be doing exactly the opposite.”

However, there are some in the industry that do not want any changes made to pensions in the upcoming Autumn Statement. For example, Walker Crisps Wealth Management CEO David Hetherton feels that pensions have been a “target” for governments to use in tackling budget deficits, but, “this year we would strongly prefer it if the Chancellor left pensions untouched”.

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