Switching 2p from National Insurance to Income Tax could raise £6 billion while protecting workers’ pay packets. Here's what you need to know 👇 👇 👇

The most important takeaway from today's pay growth figures: the step-up in the generosity of benefits at state pension age is widening. Increasing both the financial impact of the state pension age review, and the pressure on it to pull up the drawbridge on younger generations.

I wonder how many of these 7 million households would be receiving the benefits they're entitled to, if we stopped means testing them and raised income tax instead. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The well-intentioned lie that pensions "tax relief" is a giveaway continues to cause harm. Pensions "tax relief" just means that those who save for a full retirement, don't face higher income taxes than someone who partially retires instead. Ideas to cut it would arbitrarily incentivise the latter.

The Telegraph is correct, but for exactly the wrong reasons; the triple "lock" ratchet applied to pensioner benefits, by far the highest welfare cost, is indeed unsustainable.

A lengthy post setting out what's wrong with current UK pensions, and what's needed to fix it. I don't agree with its suggestions on tax, but otherwise it hits the nail on the head, well worth reading!

A neat illustration of why it's not a good idea for the state safety net to become much more generous at age 67.

Good to see the risk for those on low incomes of oversaving for retirement being highlighted. Auto-enrolment should be set up so it's clear to people if they're likely to be in that bucket or not: if you're being auto-enrolled, it should be likely you're not in it. www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is, by comparison, how likely the Office for National Statistics thinks it is that people will die by those ages. Not a new observation, but people do seem to underestimate how long they're going to live for. Interesting though that people have a good grasp of how likely they are to reach 100!

A rare IFS report yesterday, in that I largely disagree with it. In particular, it: 1. Suggests a bigger gap between working age & pensioner benefits; 2. Say many will miss out on target replacement rates, but not who/why (AE seems sufficient, so opt-outs/self-employed?) ifs.org.uk/sites/defaul...

The PLSA have announced their latest "retirement living standards", expenditure thresholds for "minimum", "moderate" & "comfortable" retirements. As always, they look very high: they'd make most people better off after retirement than before, likely over saving www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk

Very informative chart from Washington Post

“The risk is that it’s precisely the individuals receiving health-related benefits that are least responsive to financial incentives to work, and perhaps most in need of extra financial support.” Read our full response here: ifs.org.uk/articles/ifs...

100% agree. Means testing: it's always a bad idea.

One of these groups has their benefits "triple locked". The others are having their benefits cut. It still shocks me that we're actively widening this divide. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The important thing being the terms on which those future claims are bought, and the extent to which they're adjusted later on if, in hindsight, those terms look to have been overly generous / penal.

Really enjoyed this piece, on a fundamental truth that's (sadly) important to today's politics: taxing imports is the same thing as taxing exports.

If you want to compare the cost of living between countries, you can't use normal exchange rates: you need to use PPPs (Purchasing Power Parity exchange rates). PPPs are averages for entire countries: if you're interested in less well off (or more well off) people, turns out you need different PPPs

I'm really glad this point is being made. Defined benefit pensions died in 2003, when they were retrospectively guaranteed. Very few people want to pay the costs of those guarantees, so very few people now have DB pensions. www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/40...

Really like the focus here on starting with a view on the role of the state, and building from there.

I wondered why as a kid I never had tenderstem broccoli, but rather the fat stuff. TIL, it was only invented in the 90s, as a new hybrid, and is a registered trademark

Is responding to another country's import tariffs with your own import tariffs a purely political, rather than economic, response? Presumably encouraged by results like these ("tit for tat"'s very intuitive). Better to instead give export subsidies to affected sectors? www.imf.org/-/media/File...

Difficult to imagine the world view of those stuck in this swamp of nostalgia, inertia and complacency.

I continue to be intrigued by 100% PPF levy proposals, and what restrictions its proponents suggest to get around the moral hazard issues. Taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook: a firm guarantee would be needed that Government will never financially assist the PPF. www.ft.com/content/2a0d...

Bemused by these workers' demands for Boeing to write more final salary pension promises, as credit rating agencies warn of their debt being downgraded to junk status! Maybe now isn't the time to want to be paid in Boeing debt? (Photo copied from John Ralfe on X - x.com/JohnRalfe1/s...)

The highlight of this fantastic thread is clearly MP's expenses being so high up the list people thing Government spends money on, but a shout out for state pensions being so low!

With lots of rumours going round, if a hypothetical Chancellor must raise revenue via pension taxes, what are the best/worst options at a societal level? My tier list would be: S: Tax on inheritance A: NI treatment B: Cut tax free lump sum D: Cut AA E: Reintroduce LTA F-: Tax relief "reform"

Fantastic news! Multi (or no) employer, decumulation only collective pensions are the future we need, and the pension I want to invest in when I retire. Royal Mail's design is hopefully a stepping stone there. After years of change, 🤞 it performs well for members. www.pensionsage.com/pa/Royal-Mai...

My @theifs.bsky.social colleagues fighting the good fight on pensions tax relief. The new government might be tempted to cap up-front income tax relief for easy money (not least because they've ruled out almost everything else), but it's not a good idea. ifs.org.uk/articles/rai...