THE following is a perfect example of Osbornomics, you know the sort that tells you how much better off you are under his policies when by sleight of hand he reduces your income.
I checked my pension statement for 2016-2017 and discovered the increase was only 1.82 per cent instead of the 2.9 per cent as advertised.
I assumed a mistake was made and phoned the Tax Office.
The tax office told me to me that 2.9 per cent was applicable only to the basic state pension and no longer included ‘additional voluntary contributions’, which up to this year did apply.
I have substantially less income than I would normally receive, not even enough to cover the increases in the usual obligatory services, such as council tax, water, etc.
We were encouraged to take out AVCs to increase our pension pot.
If it has always been classed as part of the pension, surely it is wrong to now discount it.
Perhaps even illogical.
Just another injustice to add to the Chancellor’s travesty of a budget.
It is particularly annoying at this time as I have just increased my monthly investment amount into my Panamanian off-shore tax avoidance scheme.
Ah well, I suppose, I will just have to grin and bear it, as David Cameron says: “We are all in it together”.
MR D R SMITH
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