The Budget

[tut]

As none of you have retired yet, I presume that those of you not on a final salary scheme will be pleased with the Pension reform.

Not having to take the annuity on a fixed date will give you the opportunity to withhold it if the economic conditions are poor and you would get a crap rate, and wait until things improved. You can now also with draw it all out if you wish to manage it yourself, and still get 25% of your pot tax free as cash. I wish I had had that opportunity when I retired, as though I was fortunate enough to be on a final salary scheme so knew exactly what my pension would be, my AVC's had to be taken as an annuity whereas if I had been able to take it as cash I could have invested it at a better return rate than the one that I had to take.

On the downside you will be paying out extra in benefits for the great unwashed who will take the cash out and immediately dash down to the bookies/off licence/drug dealer, etc, spend the lot so end up with no pension, and the good old UK Government would be shelling out for the rest of their existence with your Income Tax contributions.

tut

[sendmyusername]

I work in michelin, and we switched from final salary to dc about six years ago, this left the older guys a bit stuffed, as they had about 20 years in the final salary, and only about 4-8 years in the dc, so their dc is pretty much sh*t.
Now they can take their lump sum as their dc and live off their final salary. It will make a BIG difference to these guys.
Also the brokers had you over a barrel as you had to invest it. Now, as tut says, you can piss it up against a wall. So the brokers have to make it worth your while investing in them.

[BiggestNizzy]

I have 33 years left before I retire (@70) I fully expect things to change conciderably before that date.

[tut]

Me too, they may spell conciderably differently as well.

tut

[BiggestNizzy]

considerably better at least.

[rossybee]

I work in michelin

Dundee?

[DJ]

I'll take your Pensioner Bond allowance Tut if not using it?