The Your Pension, Your Choice campaign has filed its Budget submission to HM Treasury, making the case for the Government to relook at options for granting pension freedoms to more than 5 million pre-2015 retirees.
“This is a towering injustice,” said a campaign spokesperson. “Over 5 million people are still waiting for the Government to right this wrong, as it said it would in 2015”.
Three years ago, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer said, “There are 5 million pensioners who are locked into annuities they have already bought. They should have the same freedoms as we have given everyone else”.
Just a year later, the Government U-turned, saying it could not guarantee consumers would get good value for money from selling their annuity. A commitment to evaluating new solutions in the 2016 Autumn Statement was then quietly shelved and is yet to be revisited. It is now three years since the original announcement, over 5 million pensioners are still trapped, unable to flexibly access their savings.
Post-2015 retirees on the other hand, who are benefitting from the introduction of Pension Freedoms, are able to purchase an annuity, invest in a drawdown account or cash out their entire pension pot. Since 2015, they have cashed in over £9.2 billion from their pension pots.
Stephen Lloyd MP for Eastbourne, said: “It is vital that the Government relook at this. The principle of Pension Freedoms is the right one, but not if millions are unable to take advantage of it. We must work towards the next logical step, which is to ensure pre-2015 retirees are able to flexibly access their retirement savings. The Chancellor now has the opportunity to correct this.”
A campaign spokesperson added, “It has been encouraging to see the response of MPs to the campaign already, but the Government needs to take action soon. We have set out in clear teams to the Chancellor that he must look at what the options are for extending Pension Freedoms to pre-2015 retirees”.
Animated campaign explainer video launched
The Your Pension Your Choice campaign has created an animated video to tell the story of this grave injustice. Click here to watch.
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