Could means tested pensions be coming in the new budget?

Those with wealth may be taking the biggest hits in the upcoming Labour budget statement.

Transcript

00:00So, what might we see in the budget?

00:04Well Labour may raise capital gains tax to boost revenue.

00:08Current rates are 10% for basic and 20% for higher rate taxpayers.

00:14We may also see an increase on inheritance tax.

00:18Pensions could see a hit and Chancellor Reeves might alter pension tax relief which costs

00:23£48.7 billion annually, mostly benefiting higher rate taxpayers.

00:29I suspect that in the budget at the end of October there may be other sort of nasty sort

00:35of fall for pensioners including, as one of the rumours goes, that sort of means testing

00:39the state pension because of course there are many sort of pensioners who sort of live

00:43in million pound houses, you know, they get it nonetheless.

00:46Well the UK certainly faces a challenging fiscal situation in 2024 with a projected

00:54£40 billion deficit driven by high public spending and sluggish economic growth.

01:01Persistent inflation has increased the cost of living and strained household budgets while

01:07also elevating the government's debt servicing costs.

01:11Tax revenues have lagged and significant spending commitments on healthcare, social care and

01:16green energy projects have further pressurised public finances.

01:21Economic analysts warn that tough fiscal measures will be needed to stabilise the economy

01:27and restore confidence in the UK's financial outlook.

01:33Well the argument is that it's those with the sort of the broadest shoulders, you know,

01:37sort of higher income earners, I'm sort of talking of those on the sort of the 40% tax rate.

01:41Well yeah, I mean pensioners of course, as I say, that I suggested earlier that sort

01:45of that may be means tested.

01:47So I think that as I say there'll be a sort of broad range of issues where people will

01:50sort of really start to feel the sort of the pain and of course let's face it, you

01:54know, the idea that sort of, you know, we're out of the sort of cost of living crisis is

01:58nonsense, you know, many people are still in it.