British taxpayers have been working hard over the last few years. Many of them have deferred the consumerist notions of instant gratification and paid, responsibly, a portion of their wages into a private pension fund to not only help look after them after retirement, but to ease the burden to the state in their later years.
It does seem unfair when one reads articles like the one I did today which illustrate the dire situation many pensioners are finding themselves in nowadays.
Recent findings have supported the theory that the real cost of living for pensioners is now rising at twice the rate of inflation ( University of Newcastle ), whilst the Telegraph reported today that Pension annuities are being halved by the Prudential and First Equitable.
Prudential has finally admitted that some of the 62,000 former Equitable customers it has taken under its wing have been wrongly taxed, after The Telegraph took up their grievance. Initially, the company was adamant that the tax notices were correct, even though it accepted that 2,000 customers had seen their monthly income sliced.
So the system is penalising those who have paid into pension funds, the cost of living is on the rise, the actual sums being realised from pensions is decreasing. With the decline in the birth rate and the increase in longevity there will be an increasing necessity for us to look at how we treat our pensioners and to make sure that we are looking after the vulnerable sectors of society.