Has Labour crashed the economy ?

You are the one that bought it up, why do that it its not even a plan/policy?

So pensions were not being used for their intended purpose but to avoid IH tax, well done Reeves!

One thing comes through on some of yours and others posts... the Wealthy can afford to retire early but the rest of us can carry on working longer.....

The vast majority do not earn enough to amass a large pension pot, you d need around 600k to get the equivalent of the SP and be able index link it.

@Nordione1

Also means testing the state pension is a sure fire way to discourage people to invest in a private pension.

It would be far better just to put up the retirement age and if you want to retire earlier then invest in a private pension.

It is like an insurance, as it says on the label. We paid in.

Everyone goes on about state pension being paid for by the current workers - so are public sector pensions. If they suddenly decided there wasn’t enough tax coming in the pay out all the defined benefit public sector pensions people would be up in arms! The social contract is that by paying our NI we have earned state pension.

Bring on assisted dying

nuclear power everywhere although it will take time to come on board

make weight loss drugs available on nhs

Agree. That would be a fair way.

@Nordione1

"I think the whole system will need reform somehow as it is a future massive unaffordable burden for our children. No idea how though. Maybe raising the retirement age?"

I agree that the whole system needs reform and along with the NHS is one of the biggest Government costs. So if you need to cut spending then it is an obvious place to start to make significant savings. Rather than dicking about with the £12 billion on foreign aid or HS2 or aircraft carriers etc.

The most immediate way to make the savings is to say put up the retirement age by say 2 or 3 months every year rather than a cliff edge change at certain points in time.

Like many things our 4 year government terms don’t lead to the reform we need.
things like replacing the right to buy houses, no government did it as it wouldn’t benefit the here and now. Instead they just took the cash out.

Private only pensions sounds like some peoples idea of a wet dream. Big companies to invest in and finger pointing that you didn’t work hard enough to have the heating on

I know it goes into the pot that pays out the current pensioners. But I’m buying the stamps for mine

Re your edit..It's just a rumour at the moment as Rachel Reeves didn't go for private pensions in this budget. She would be very short-sighted if she did end up doing so at the next one. Fingers crossed. The change in the IHT rules will obviously discourage people putting money into their pensions anyway.

I think the whole system will need reform somehow as it is a future massive unaffordable burden for our children. No idea how though. Maybe raising the retirement age?

Which makes a 4% cut by sunak/hunt even more of a mystery...at an annual cost of £10 billion.... well actually its not, it was done to hamstring Labour or in other words ... us....

Labour aren't "going for private pensions" the huge damage done to DC pensions was by Truss, they still haven't recovered.

Your NI is paying for current pensioners.

The law can be changed at any time though and there's no pension pot for the state pension, its just paid for by current tax. At some point the state might be unable to afford the huge outlay for state pension, public sector pensions and plus people are living longer. Then they might stop the pension all together. The government should probably encourage people to try and finance their own retirement so it's a shame Labour are going for private pension pots potentially. Seems shortsighted.

I understand that it’s not like a company pension where your money is in an account, but I’ve still paid in for my state pension in my NI.

We haven't paid for our pension itself though. It will be the working people at the age you retire that will pay.

Is means testing the state pension good or bad thing? I can't really imagine it as a fantastic vote winner!!

I bloody hope not. We just need someone to get on with the job not be ruled by three rich blokes and what they say in their papers.
we’ve had enough instability for the last few years

Hang on. Surely she can’t do that if you’ve paid your NI?!

it’s not a benefit. Like the nhs. We pay for it

Note that news is that Badenoch plans to means test pensions, according to her LBC phone in today. Noted.

Completely agree. Reeves days are numbered - the fact that she has been forced to publicly address calls for her resignation have made that clear.

Unfortunately a large proportion of that tiny 0.01% growth was driven by the hospitality sector which is about to get hammered by the rise in Employers NI and change in workers rights.

Germany is in a worse state!!

If she was naive enough to see a slight fall in inflation as her saviour, growth at half what was forecast (albeit from a very low base) doesn't dispell fears of staglation though, does it? Borrowing costs haven't fallen, though that's what she'd like you to think. What has happened is that they wont be rising quite as much...we are still paying higher interest on debt that we were when Labour came into power. Now, the fact that the increase is fractionally lower than it was last week could be good news in terms of still having some headroom under the fiscal rules laid out...but I don't expect it will be enough to make a difference, and it certainly isn't enough to kickstart growth

Actually growth was less than forecast and per capita growth is probably still in decline

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r5jkv5g5po

Methinks the doom mongers are getting ahead of themselves. I’ve seen worse economies…