Budget: Little pension change a ‘welcome respite’

By Tom Carnegie, 22 Nov 17

It is “business as usual” for UK pensions as no major changes were included in the Autumn Budget by chancellor Philip Hammond, although some small tweaks were made to the lifetime allowance, asset management and the personal income allowance.

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Personal allowance

The budget looks to further reduce income tax by increasing the personal allowance to £11,850 (currently £11,500).

Additionally, it will raise the higher rate threshold by £12,849 to £46,350 from £33,501 to be in line with inflation.

These changes to the personal allowance and higher rate threshold will help achieve the goal of boosting wages, reducing living costs and giving support to small businesses, the budget document stated.

Other changes listed to achieve these aims include providing a further £2.3bn of support to businesses to reduce the burden of business rates and increasing the minimum wage from £7.50 to £7.83.

Neil Moles, managing director of Progeny Group, said the government needed to go further to implement progressive change.

“This was meant to be the budget of a generation but the chancellor stood there joking around with crucial aspects of the economy. This government must start implementing progressive change.

“The underlying problem is that the tax system in the UK and in other developed countries is far too complex.”

He added: “The internationalisation of wealth means we have uneven tax regimes. This won’t change until the government grasps the nettle and simplifies the UK tax code, and then pioneers its coordination on a global scale.”