One day after the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, many will have had time to digest the pension announcements, but others have picked up on some notable exclusions.
To recap, the Chancellor announced a reduction to the money purchase annual allowance from £10,000 to £4,000 and that the government will consult on banning pensions cold calling. He also announced the tax treatment of QROPs will “more closely align” with the UK’s domestic pension tax regime.
The biggest exclusion, however, was the Lifetime ISA, first announced by Philip Hammond’s predecessor George Osborne in the Budget earlier this year. Since then the government has pressed ahead with introducing the Savings (Government Contributions) Bill to pave the way for the LISA, and asked the Financial Conduct Authority to consult on its regulation.
Hammond may not have seen the need to give it any mention but others have their own opinions. Some see no mention as a “missed opportunity”, à la PwC’s Steven Decker: “With no announcements on the tax relief taper or boosting LISAs, today was a missed opportunity to simplify the labyrinthine rules around tax relief on pension contributions and clarify the overall direction for encouraging long-term saving.”
Others, however, believe that Hammond is going to give it the chop, as he talked of continued support for the Help to Buy ISA, but did not give any mention to the LISA. Whether or not this is true, Pinsent Masons partner and pensions expert Tom Barton believes that the LISA seems to have “jumped the last fence en route to the finish line of April 2017”.
Moving on, without directly mentioning it the Chancellor hinted at the scrapping of the triple lock after 2020. After stating the government will keep the triple lock until 2020, he said the government will review public spending priorities for the next parliament in the next spending review.
And as Aon Hewitt partner Matthew Arends picked up on, the Chancellor also dropped in the phrase “rising longevity” several times, perhaps preparing us for an increase to the state pension age, again.
“The Chancellor shrewdly deferred review of the triple lock to another day but raised the spectre of a review of taxation in light of increasing population longevity. It will be interesting to see whether this is a nod to further changes to State Pension Age,” Arends said.
This may not be a surprise given John Cridland's review into the state pension age, but just by how much is unknown.











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