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[/audioplayer]It is easy to see why George Osborne seemed so confident ahead of the Budget. His radical reform of the pension system, allowing people far easier access to their pension pots, will not only help the retired (in the short term) but will raise money for the government, as it taxes what they spend.
The Chancellor boasted that this was the biggest single reform to the pension system since the 1920s, and he has a point. Until now, the system had operated on the premise that people should save, and that banks normally offer reasonable rates of interest. In debt-addicted post-crash Britain, those rules have ceased to apply. The government has kept interest rates nailed to the floor.
Osborne’s reforms will go a long way towards helping pensioners.
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