Sorry Ben , you won’t have a million pound pension, you’ll have a £1m pot and a £40k pension (with proper inflation)

You might get a level annuity at £65,000 (or more if you hung on) but would you get protection for your wife if you died and what if there was inflation?

As for taxation, what makes you think that you needn’t pay taxes as a pensioner

And whatever I do amass will be taxed mercilessly. My pension income, while modest, will probably attract the higher rate of income tax thanks to the deep freeze on thresholds; council tax will continue to bite harder every year; and any leftovers face an inheritance tax charge for my family of 40 per cent.

Pensioners do not pay national insurance on their pension, this despite their being the ones who are putting most strain on the NHS (where some of the NI goes). Pensioners also get the state pension , that is massively improved with the triple lock and there are a host of savings that pensioners get on almost everything we do.

All that Ben’s article does is show us the difference in the wealth of Times readers and the rest.

Analysis of government data in 2022 showed that one in four pensioners lived in households with £1 million or more in assets. By the time I retire in the 2050s, I suspect this figure will be one in two.

The reality is that our properties make the majority of our assets and they are likely to provide equity release to increasing numbers from pensioner poverty. This is the reality of pensions when it’s funded by auto-enrolment set at basic levels.

But to scare people into thinking that they need to have a pension pot of £1m to have a reasonable £40k inflation-proofed retirement wage is absurd. Putting aside the possibility that the reader might be in a public pension (or one of the increasingly rare private one), there are possibilities going forward for those with all kinds of saving levels to get to a pension target more easily.

I am fed up with the Times and its relentless bleating about rich people’s opportunity to exploit tax-breaks. I am fed up with wealth as the target of the newspaper’s readership.

It is time for us to think of pensions as social insurance for the poor and a way for the middle earners to get to comfort. The rich have a number of ways to stay rich and pensions will be an increasingly small part of their wealth planning. Pensions are not valued by the value of the pot, pots won’t be displayed on dashboards and increasingly they won’t be paid out with the flexibility that freedom has granted.

You will be able to opt-out of the pension system but you will have to pay the price in terms of taxation , whichever option you choose.

This kind of irresponsible reporting undermines the hard work of large employers, unions and those who are committed to making collective pensions work for everyone. Most of all the Government has determined to make pensions as fair for those on low income as those with a million pounds in their pot.