It has been suggested in the national media that advisors to the Labour Government have recommended that the state pension should be subject to a means test. In other words, if you have other income you may not qualify for it even though you have been paying National Insurance for all your working life.
This is, I suggest, a most disreputable attack on those who plan adequately for retirement, or need to fall back on the state pension for basic living expenses. Life is very uncertain and sometimes illness can curtail working lives and lead to early retirement. The state pension is a useful backstop and making state pensions subject to a means test will undermine the principle that you receive the state pension because you have contributed to it.
After banning smoking in pub gardens this could be yet another unpopular Labour Government policy. I have not smoked for 40 years but I can see little scientific justification for such a regulation. Where is the evidence to show this will have any benefit in reducing cancer deaths when people can still smoke at home? It’s just another example of the Labour Government’s propensity to interfere in personal freedom and individual responsibility.
Other tax changes such as increasing Inheritance or Capital Gains Tax are also mooted. More unpopular changes that will have unintended consequences and may raise very little due to people taking avoidance measures. Capital Gains tax is already an unfair tax as it taxes imaginary gains generated by high inflation. This discourages investment as people will avoid investing and just spend all their income instead. Maybe that is the hidden agenda but it does not bode well for the health of the economy.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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