Thanks for posting, Peter.

Personally, I reckon they are more likely to fiddle with the LTA than move the age goalpost like that but you never know. I suspect such a move would be a major vote-loser and I think they’ve found the extra income tax from people drawing their pensions from age 55 is pretty useful for the government’s cash flow!

From what I understand, the 55 age limit should move up to 57 in 2028 (presumably from 6 April that year) when the State Pension age rises to 67. After that the age limit will be linked to 10 years below the State Pension age.

I believe the current proposal is that the State Pension age would increase to 68 between 6 April 2037 and 6 April 2039, but this is yet to be made official. There was a story last week about it possibly being raised to 75 by 2035, but it’s not clear to me whether this is being seriously considered or it was just one of those ‘leaks’ that are made to test public opinion on such matters.

But it just goes to show that what we really need are consistency and clarity, so we can all make proper plans. The markets throw enough our way — we don’t need politicans to up the difficulty level on top of that!

Thanks, Getting Minted. That’s not an option for me, as I contributed fairly recently, but it’s definitely worth highlighting as a potential course of action.

Thanks for posting about your experience In Hampshire. I must admit that I hadn’t really considered the case of someone who got caught in the wind down from £1.8m to £1m.

The government’s line is that LTA is a retrospective tax on contribution relief, but it is simply a tax upon eventual investment risk and success. I could need access to the HMRC crystal ball, as there is no direct control of outcome, and they should really pay me a commission for managing this money when they come to take it. Needless to say, I am out of further pension investment.

The choice of CPI is a joke, they need to index it with the market and currency fluctuations, particularly following the effects of Trump and Brexit. Reductions in the LTA maxima are an unfair retrospective change – I remain well below the £1.8m which was relevant when I embarked in this. More will fall into this trap.

Or better remove the LTA, as it is the investor who takes the risk, and the Treasury seems to have no understanding of this. A rather empirical response I received from them in response to a political enquiry was written by a 2 year or so graduate recruit (could see on LinkedIn), who would be far from experienced in the real world of generations of pensions changes.

A simple annual allowance (not tapered) needs to be considered, as this is not related to risk.

I am not particularly rich, or in an elite, I worked a professional job for over 35 years, and was careful to save through all of it.