Christmas finds Germany enthused by Richard Smith. We want him back in Britain for the new year.
There is a good argument for advertising good news for the public by a Government keen to be well-regarded by the same.
It won’t be till the end of 2026 that a new type of pension will be launched then (CDC) and the launch of dashboard and CDC may coincide, both pension rather than savings initiatives.
After 20 years moving to advertising pensions as “wealth” and retirement income as “pots”, there will be a re-education of our population about what pensions are before.
Another coincidence will be the arrival of a tax on unused pension pots that have (till then) been outside the grasp of inheritance taxes. From April of 2027 unused pots which have not been swapped for a pension or an annuity will be taxable and may in some circumstances be taxed.
The intention of the Government is to have pots drawn by default either as CDC pensions, annuities or by drawdown with protection against people living too long for the pot. I will add a fourth option which is available to people who are within a year of joining a public sector scheme (including LGPS) , these people can move pots into their pension schemes and get an inflation linked pension (with no caps on the inflation unlike most private DB plans).
My suggestion to the Pensions Minister is that the Government gets behind the Pension Awareness Campaign in Oct/Nov next year and makes it clear to people what is coming up.
My suggestion is that Mr Richard Smith is awarded at least an OBE and most properly a knighthood for the work he has done to get us pension dashboard ready!
Makes everyone an enthusiast
Beyond age 75 unspent Pots will be taxed twice. First at 40% for IHT then at up the 45% on the remaining 60%
While I couldn’t find a precise single statistic for the percentage of males who live beyond age 75, we can infer from related statistics:
∙ Male life expectancy at birth in the UK is 79.1 years for 2022 to 2024 , which means the average male lives well past 75
∙ Almost 5 million people in the UK are aged 75 and over , representing a substantial portion of the population
∙ The median age at death for males in England and Wales was 81.8 years in 2020 , meaning half of all males live beyond this age
Given that male life expectancy at birth is 79.1 years and the median age of death is around 82 years, a substantial majority of UK males—likely 70-80%—survive beyond age 75.