Saturday, April 26, 2014

This is a revelation?

The Daily Mail has revealed that Labours £118 billion 'stealth' raid on the pension companies turned a once thriving business into one which could not sustain its promised outgoings and had to re-adapt to the market.Mail.
The devastating impact of Labour’s infamous raid on pensions can be laid bare today.
Official figures reveal that the tax grab has saved the Treasury – and cost workers – £118billion since 1997.
In one of his first decisions as chancellor, Gordon Brown scrapped tax relief on pension firms’ dividends.
The move is blamed for wrecking a once thriving industry and fuelling the closure of many final salary schemes.
Analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility shows it has saved the Treasury almost £7billion a year – £2billion more than Mr Brown had expected.
The annual gain is expected to top £9.7billion this year with £117.9billion saved between 1997 and 2014.
The OBR quietly published the figures on its website this week.
Ros Altmann, a former Downing Street pension adviser, said Labour’s move marked ‘the beginning of the end of the gold standard pension that British workers could rely on from their boss’.
She added: ‘This is money that has come out of people’s pensions. It paved the way for the end of final salary schemes because it made them so much more expensive. They were suddenly unaffordable.’
Well it certainly wasn't news to me and I doubt it was news to anyone else who took an interest in Labours wrecking of the UK's economy by reckless spending and borrowing. Not that the present government have done anything to change this, although I rather suspect they now need that income to pay off Labours other debts. What happened was basically Labour saw spare cash and grabbed it, didn't care for the consequences as anyone who could afford one of those schemes obviously wasn't going to vote for them (probably) So being typically socialist they took from the rich and not so rich and squandered it on grandiose projects and wrecked the countries economy until at the end all was left was a note telling the next government that the money had run out.
Now they tell us that idiots out there might just vote them back in to form the next government. Truly some people must be utter morons.
The pensions industry has adapted of course, you can still get a reasonable deal if you shop around, but final pension schemes that would have kept many happy in their declining years have gone the journey save of course in the union dominated public services who use their muscle to keep the schemes they have at the expense of the taxpayer a sort of double whammy, thank you Labour.
This is one of the reasons I hate the left with a vengeance, they simply don't have a clue about economics, it's all take, take, take, spend, spend, spend and then leave someone else to clean up their mess whilst they bitch about the measures needed.
Yet people still vote for them, go figure...

4 annotations:

Oldrightie said...

Nice post as ever. As for theleftie hatred, count me in. Their support comes from the ignorant or the hypocritical. Sadly plenty of both to carry on keeping the cretinous sods going.

Anonymous said...

+2

Dioclese said...

I think it was George Brown who said "I will squeeze the rich until the pips squeak"

New Labour just squeazed everybody and Miliband and Balls will just give us more of the same. Tax and spend was he old mantra - now it tax, borrow and spend

Edward Spalton said...

Dioclese,

I've a feeling it was Denis Healey ,

And, of course, the public service pensioners ( including MPs) are completely inflation-proofed and their pensions well above the level to which their contributions would entitle them in the private sector.