Salary sacrifice to be taxed

[SomethingInTheAirToday]

https://x.com/politlcsuk/status/1986914552093745592?s=46

not only are my generation not going to have a state pension or private healthcare, but we also can’t save into our own pensions because we need to fund the current generation.

this makes me so angry

He can move his contributions out of that scheme and into a SIPP (while keeping that occupational scheme open for ongoing contributions from him and his employer) and then invest the funds in whatever he chooses. As I said, his “issue” is down to his own mismanagement of his finances, not some problem with the pensions framework.

So he transfers the funds into a SIPP. That’s what I do and I have a huge choice of funds, the exact same ones as for my stocks and shares ISA because they are with the same provider, Fidelity. As an extra Brucey Bonus, I transfer the funds in whenever Fidelity have a cash back offer. I have got up to £500 free cash doing this.

Exactly what I’d explained to her twice now.

Some people are beyond help…

There would be charges and it’s doing OK.
He has a variety of pensions from different jobs and locations. Of course his US one is outperforming his UK ones, as is his 401k

This thread has been like bashing one’s head on a wall. Threads like this evidence so clearly the economic illiteracy and lack of basic numeracy in the population. It’s even more concerning given that those responding to such threads about tax and fiscal policy presumably are among the more informed members of the electorate. It does rather explain why such inccompetent politicians keep being elected.

It seems that saying about a country getting the Government that it deserves is validated. However, it’s a shame that the consequences of this level of economic illiteracy in much of the population have to be inflicted on the rest of us continually.

There’s no “of course” about it. UK pensions can be invested in shares etc. in any country around the world. Very little at all of my pension portfolio is invested in the UK. Again: this is an issue about your husband’s financial mismanagement. Investing in appropriate asset classes sensibly can make a DC pension fund 2 or 3 times the size by retirement so I find it completely implausible that any transfer fees payable to move his funds to a SIPP could possibly be of that magnitude. If they were then the FCA would have shut down his pension provider by now.

Aren’t you a fun sponge.
Due to his hard work since the age of 17 and working in dangerous locations, he has pensions in many funds and places. This spreads the risks and he will be able to draw down different ones at the best times….He has pensions in US dollars which have outperformed our plodding stock market….
i imagine Rachel Reeves will change the goal posts for many.

So you were there then, were you?
For the x numbers of ordinary families growing up the 70s and 80 who hadn’t a lot of spare after bills, your comments are insulting!
look beyond your f’ing AI data etc and maybe actually listen and talk to people who were there……..yes, like every generation there were those well off….but most ordinary working class were not living in luxury and often had to decide whether to clothe kids, eat or heat, or which bill they could clear that month etc……
you have no fucking idea.

Re
The triple lock

Why the constant obsession with just one benefit on these threads

What about the increase in others for example in 2026 the increases will be

UC increase of 6.2%
PIP increase of 3.8%

The 2025 increase on pensions was 4.1% and as yet not disclosed for 2026 but is projected to be 4.8%

You really don’t understand it at all, do you?

He can invest his UK pension funds in the US stock market, or the Japanese stock market, or the stock markets of emerging economies. It does not have to be invested in the shares of companies registered in the country where the funds are held.

Nor does whether the funds are combined or held with different providers when he eventually draws down on them need to make any difference to which proportion he wants to keep invested in which asset classes or markets at any given time, which he would be adjusting gradually over time and during the years of withdrawal if he is managing his money competently.

You think pensioners live in luxury on £176.45 a week?

Unfortunately those who have no long term life experience always think they’ve got it worse
Central heating now is an essential that for many was an absolute luxury as we huddled by the single electric fire in the living room

Most people on mumsnet can’t conceive a life without a dishwasher when my parents kept the milk in a bucket of water because they couldn’t afford a fridge despite both working full time including Saturdays and for my mum Christmas Eve etc aswell.

Did any here live through the last big recession when people lost their homes because Hmrc didn’t help with mortgage interest payments and there was no such thing as being given a mortgage holiday.

The bubble some people live in is laughable

Keep the masses arguing among themselves and blaming each other

Wasn't MIRAS there to help people with mortgage interest rates?

State pension welfare makes up over 50% of the entire welfare cost. The reasons people are focusing on this are that:

a) the triple lock is literally mathematically impossible to sustain for the long term: pension payments would end up exceeding total tax revenue, and then total GDP;

b) the level of magnitude. State pensions are currently £148bn per year. Means testing them without causing any financial hardship at all to pensioners (only removing it entirely from those with independent means exceeding the net income of working aged people earning the average UK full time salary of £37,500) would save £80-90bn per year. Compare this £80-90bn of unnecessary taxpayer expense to the recent proposals to save £5bn by removing benefits from many disabled people who are on average in the poorest cohort in society, unlike the pensioners who would be affected by means testing the state pension who are in the richest cohort in society. Compare this £80-90bn of unnecessary taxpayer expense to the proposals that this thread is about which purportedly were aimed to save £2bn, but in actual fact will cost far more than they will save because of the extremely negative economic consequences that would far outweigh this which I’ve set out in earlier posts.

Then you may begin to see why people are focusing on pension welfare: there is no other area of public expenditure where there is such enormously wasteful and unnecessary spending and it’s completely unsustainable and is starving productive parts of the economy (education, infrastructure, industrial policy) of investment that can generate rising productivity, salaries and living standards for future generations, and is also one of the main reasons for the shortfall between income and expenditure resulting in an ever-increasing national debt and £100bn per year now being spent just on interest on the national debt, hence state pensions requiring urgent reform with immediate effect. The country simply can’t afford them. It was entirely foreseeable and foreseen that this would be the case when the current pensioners were of working age but they did nothing about it and it cannot be delayed any longer not matter how outraged they are about it.

I would think they are very foolish not to have paid into SERPS. My working class dad never had a high paid job and he was made redundant on numerous occasions, but he has a pension that’s greater than the old basic amount because he paid into SERPS.

Well, I’m very far from pension age and have indeed experienced when younger living somewhere with no central heating, no washing machine, no oven, no bed, damp on all the walls, single glazing, regularly not having sufficient money for food, regularly having the electricity cut off.

What’s your point?

Oh, sorry, of course: it’s the Four Yorkshireman sketch again, isn’t it? A parody of that parody seems to be the only thing that many pensioners seem to have to add when they attempt to interject into discussions on economics.

Funny how they always neglect to mention SERPS, isn’t it?

Just like the unspoken secret of MIRAS, when they start banging on about the very short period of a few weeks when they had to pay high interest rates on the peanuts they paid for their houses that they now want to sell to young families at ten times the price in real-terms.

Ahhhhh, MIRAS. I wonder how young people today would feel about being allowed to deduct their mortgage interest from their tax bill. Strange that all of these people hankering after the “good old days” aren’t campaigning for MIRAS to be reinstated so that young people now can enjoy that same tax relief, and in fact should apparently also have their pension contributions taxed as well! And pay student loans of course.

Absolutely no entitlement or selective memory, of course. Nothing to see here…

Just “GIVE ME MY TRIPLE LOCK. I don’t care if I have a house worth two million pounds with 4 spare bedrooms. Why should I downsize and use my own (largely untaxed) money to pay for myself? TAX THESE LAZY YOUNG PEOPLE MORE! Stop giving people welfare. Except me of course. Keep giving it to me of it wouldn’t be faaaaaaiiiiir! 😭 I want at least 3 cruises next year.”

Have you looked at exit charges?
He holds funds in various currencies….so will manage according to the value of the pound.
He has a 401k too so benefited from the US boom years. He can draw down in dollars as and when he wants to. Historically the U.S. dollar has been a stronger currency.
You are actually very rude and come over as aggressive. Let’s hope you don’t manage people because you don’t listen. I bet everyone rolls their eyes when you start banging on about how brilliant you are…
But as my final gift, I will just add I bought Nividia stock when we lived in the U.S. You will struggle to beat that one.

The ni exemption for pensioners has nothing to do with an assumption of people’s poverty.

The current system
Pensioners don't pay National Insurance after reaching State Pension age because the NI system is designed to stop contributions once you are above a certain age ( ie now you’ve paid in you get your pension )

You still pay income tax on your pension if your total income is over the personal allowance, but NI contributions on earnings (if you're still working) and on your pension income itself are discontinued at this point.

I think it would be better for ni contributions to increase for all up to the 40years required. ie For those who have an income that is taxable and have not paid ni for the 40years ( based on the current yrs req ) that is required to receive the full state pension

Yawn
The exit fees in any product need to be a factor.
Dont Worry, sitting at your desk changing funds all the time, will be of little use when Rachel Reeves wants her pound of flesh.
And yes we have actual pensions in other countries. Because we have worked overseas.
And as you will know the US economy has boomed over time, so holding some there will be a back up.

That is very true. I actually took home less than I paid out in childcare in the 90s. I got no help with childcare vouchers etc.
I started my investment journey in the late 90s with very little money. And capital gains allowances were more generous….

You are conveniently ignoring the rates for other benefits

Clearly the whole point of posting them

6.2% increase on UC and 3.8% on PIP ( with numbers growing particularly in the young ) cannot be ignored.

As usual it’s only ever one benefit prople prefer to focus on.

A complete overhaul of all benefits is necessary not just the ones that don’t affect people personally

What an absolutely stupid post. My concern is about populism and politicians making decisions based on political optics and pressure groups instead of evidence-based policy.

I have posted a significant amount of factual information from economic studies to back up my posts here, with numbers. Where is yours to refute it?

Start talking about high earners vs low, DB vs DC, the balance of public vs private, long term merging of NI and basic rate tax and I’d be interested.

More nonsense showing that you haven’t read my posts on this thread which cover all of those issues. As do my posts on many other threads.