The 8th of October brought the headline from Madeline Ross; a Daily Telegraph money reporter that “Pension saver ‘loses £270,000’ in panic over Labour tax raid” now first thoughts are that this is terrible, Labour have cost this poor woman £270,000 of her hard earned cash, and it is going to have a significant effect on her retirement, what the hell is this government doing….. But lets be real for a second you remember I said Daily Telegraph, yep, that Tory Client so called Newspaper that loves to stir the pot when it comes to labour, and lets be honest is Madeline Ross even qualified to comment on anything to do with pensions, well a quick search of the FCA’s Financial Services Register says that she is not registered with the FCA to advise on Pensions or any other financial products.
So what is really going on? Why have people really lost out on thousands of pounds in their pensions? why have the HMRC had to issue a statement to say people cannot put back cash that they took out of their pensions? well lets have a look at what the Telegraph and other Tory media outlets were printing in the run up to the October budget.
Labour Tax Raid on Pension Contributions
Rachel Reeves Tipped to Launch 16bn tax raid on Pension Contributions
Labour's 9bn Pound Tax Raid on Pensions
Rachel Reeves urged to make 9 billion pound tax raid on pension contributions
Reeves Considers Tax Cut to Pension Withdrawals
Labour's Rachel Reeves Considers Tax Cut to Tax Free Pension Withdrawals
And this were just a few of the Headlines that have people have been bombarded with in the run up to Rachel Reeves October Budget, and the reality was that for 99% of pensioners there war absolutely no change, nothing, nadda, zip.
However that didn’t stop the the pain of this budget biting hard for many pensioners, In fact there were so many people believed the hype and pulled their money out of their pensions using the 25% tax free lump sum rule, that HMRC have actually had to issue a statement warning pensions companies that the cash cannot simply be put back in, sorry but the damage is done, live with it.
The real story here is the damage you can do to your own finances, especially when it comes to the big decisions in life like Pensions and Mortgages if you get your financial advice from the likes of Madeline Ross at the Telegraph, and in all honesty you might as-well be getting your financial advice from Bob down the Pub, you know Bob the Window Cleaner, because as far as we can see Madeline “who is often heard spelling her name down the phone” has no qualifications in finance and is certainly not any more qualified to give financial advice than Bob is.
The crucks of it, before you make a life changing financial decision ask an FCA registered Financial Advisor for advice, not Bob down the pub and certainly not the Daiy Telegraph.