What If The Lifetime Allowance Comes Back?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ค. 2024
- The Pension Lifetime Allowance is now dead - it’s not a thing any more. But within hours of the Chancellor announcing its abolition in the March 2023 budget, the Labour Party said that it would reverse the decision if it wins the next general election.
Well, we’re now only a few months away from that election, so what if the LTA does come back? Should you take action now in case it does? Or see what transpires before making any decisions?
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00:00 Welcome
00:45 Background
01:59 Reintroducing the Lifetime Allowance - challenges
05:20 What might people do?
07:21 What should you do?
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Pete I noticed in the Times this weekend that when asked a labour spokesman gave the response that the LTA would be re-introduced with exceptions for doctored and (get this!) senior civil servants. Shall I remind everyone that both these groups still enjoy ‘generous’ final salary pensions - unlike the rest of us.
And then there will be the definition of what NHS (or Civil Service) grades/jobs qualify and the whole thing will be a complete mess!
So giving extra tax benefits to those that already have a far better pension than 90% of the population? Yea, that seems fair!🤣
I think that was from an article by Steve Webb where he suggested they are planning a reintroduction at £1.5M, who knows if that includes an uplift in the tax free amount too or its another standalone limit
@@steves916 It won't include a tax free up-lift, remember socialism is about one group of people squandering another group of peoples hard earned money.
That's grossly unfair to everyone else who has worked. Why should they get a specific exception?
Any reintroduced LTA must be properly and bindingly index linked, same for tax allowances , it's a real problem in this country that you can't plan for more than a few years without being worried that you're plans will be thrown to the winds at the whims of politics/the chancellor.
Exactly this. It's the younger folk earning good money that are having to make decisions about how much to load into their pensions that will be screwed by all this. Stick money in now for 30 years on the back of a promised benefit that evaporates at the whim of the next politician in charge... wonderful deal!
Agreed. If, and it is a big if, Labour can get inflation under control, an LTA similar to the previous one would be less of a problem. In 2022, ignoring what I paid in, my pension funds increased by more than than my take home pay, despite being capped at a 6% increase. At the time I calculated that four more years of 6%+ CPI would take me over the LTA.
If it is reintroduced then I will be retiring 3 to 4 years sooner than my original plan. I will wait and see what is said. For now I will continue paying 50k year into my pension.
Really simple and helpful.
Great sensible reasoning. Thanks!
Spent years fine tuning AVC to reach 100% of the LTA by my target date and it was ditched the day after I put my notice in. Shovelled extra in as hard as I could and went just over a fewv%
Ditto. Announced shortly after my NRD. Poor... aimed solely at the most vociferous members of certain Conserative Associations...
As always a fantastic video. Thank you. You and Martin Lewis would make a great double act.
Doubt Pete would work with an unqualified amateur.
Thanks Pete, this question bothers me more than any other pension-related issue. I feel compelled to start taking DB pension and crystallise the DC pot before Labour get in, purely on the grounds of how bad I would feel if they reintroduce LTA and hit me with extra tax or reduce tax-free cash and hit me with extra tax that I could have avoided. The length of time you point out it may take to get such legislation onto the statute book, is my only crumb of comfort.
Rather than reintroduce the LTA they could make changes to how pensions are treated as part of a persons estate at death? This would incentivise people to draw money from their pension pot which is likely raise more tax and not use it as a tax shelter.
Always keen to make none controversial suggestions……..
Yes, if they want to stimulate the economy via spending, AND get rid of one of the inheritance tax loopholes, then this makes sense, rather than complex LTA systems. Keep the beneficiaries system, if the beneficiary is a marriage-partner-or-equivalent-or-charity it's tax-free, otherwise it's, say, 20% over £tbd (you can ramp up to this over 5 years to ease the rule in).
Would make more sense in long term to remove tax free lump sum, take pensions out of IHT completely, but ensure any moneys drawn are taxed as income by those who inherit. Would mean many children of those in drawdown would inherit enough to prevent them becoming a burden on the state as the ability to afford to pay state pensions fades.
absolute minefield trying to long term plan my pensions, rules seem to change every year
And I have to do this for a job!
And not just the government either. 18 years after I started working for my employer they changed the rules on the DB scheme. When I retire at the end of 2024 I will be 20% worse off because of those changes without having had enough time to react to replace the lost pension.
@@MeaningfulMoney If it was simple you would be out of a job 🙂
My understanding is that when Labour announced that they would reintroduce the lifetime allowance the pensions industry pointed out that by stating their intention they could quite easily destroy the NHS whilst in opposition, as the vast majority of senior NHS doctors and consultants would retire to avoid that reintroduction. They backtracked and the latest from Labour is that they will 'take it under advisement' i.e. they don't know what they are going to do. Maybe they should have taken a bit of advice before making such a potentially disastrous statement in the first place!
It wont just destroy the NHS - there are whole subsections of public and civil service that would need to exit to avoid crossing the threshold.
I have worked diligently since leaving school and starting work at 16 - I have moved my pension every time I have moved, and thus kept the income paid 40 years ago working. However I was at risk of hitting the last version of the LTA, even though I dont earn huge sums of money, I have just invested wisely, and been sensible. It would force me out of work - as the tax penalties beyond it make it not worth going to work once you work them out.
At the same time you see all parties thinking about how to stop paying the state pension, even for those of us who have paid in - which was part of my retirement plan too.
Sometimes governments, and politicians need to stop meddling - regardless of which party they are in.
Doesnt bode well for an incoming Labour government wrecking the NHS before stepping over the threshold of No 10
Oh dear oh dear
@@DS-cf1zcI don't understand why a 25% tax charge makes it not worth going to work. Have you turned down a pay rise because it took you into the next tax bracket? No, me neither.
@@owensmith7530 Guess you have not seen the LTA charge for over 1.073m. Have a look and 25% isn't close. Labour are looking to add pensions both state and Defined Contributions to their Magic Money Tree. People with £1m + Pensions are generally not Labour voters so they don't care.
@@markkenyon8760The LTA excess tax charge was 25% when moving the excess pension into drawdown, with the amount moved into drawdown subject to income tax at the marginal rate.
Alternatively, taking the LTA excess as a lump sum would incur a 55% tax charge.
£1m sounds like a lot of money for most of us when you think about it as a lump sum but drawing down at a rate of 4 or 5 percentage; now we’re talking about £40k-£50k per annum gross.
Yes, that’s still more than most people will retire on but you won’t be turning left each time you get on a flight.
The abolition of the LTA should act as an incentive to provide for yourself in retirement, especially for young people with lots of time on their side.
It does sound a lot. But, when my figure was calculated last year, it came to 49% of the LTA. My pay was reasonably good, but I retired early.
There is talk of doctors being made an exception. Because, you know clap for the NHS. But it is not just doctors who will be hitting the limit.
Many skilled people will. Do we make exceptions for all popular people?
I have a senior colleague who has not retired yet because he wants to be turning left when he gets on flights in retirement.
@@timg1246 there’s a real disconnect between the lump sum value within a pension and the sustainable income that will provide.
The lack of understanding amongst our politicians (of all sides) amazes me…. Or is it just to sound like you’re taxing the ‘rich’ to attract more votes 🤔
Not only is £40,000 to £50,000 a superb pension, it is fantastic given that the average worker has to work full time to achieve the national average salary of around £30,000!
@@johnporcella2375 I don’t disagree with what you say but the point I was trying to make was the disconnection between a lump sum of £1m, which sounds huge and the sustained income it provides, which while better than most of us can ever hope for, will provide a ‘comfortable’ lifestyle rather than the Champagne lifestyle £1m sounds like it will give you.
It might be too late for the likes of me but I believe that young people should be incentivised to save for retirement. I’m certainly encouraging my children to think about it a lot earlier than I did 🤞
LTA abolishment impacts me so thank you! Peter
Glad it was helpful!
Thank Peter, perfect subject for me, I’m retiring anyway early next year and have all my pensions that add up to well over the old LTA, are available to start whenever I want, but planning to start taking them all from 1st April 25 so I think I will be ok with whatever they choose to do. I will be very eager to see what labours plans are and your interpretation of it. I can’t believe I,m in the 1% group that it effects but very happy to be 😊
Even talking about introducing the LTA is damaging. I noticed a steady stream of early retirements at work recently. Many will have saved over the old LTA and may have 20%+ market gains in the last year. I suspect they are concerned about Labour plans. Another 60 year old, told me he had stopped paying into his pension due to possible LTA meddling.
Labour will be a nightmare
Maybe I can remind you when labour last left office the lifetime allowance was £1.8M. So who has been a nightmare?
Tories have become the party of taxation
The core issue is that the LTA was £1.8m when Labour left power, and the Conservatives reduced it fairly quickly to the levels that caused major issues effectively forcing many people to retire and crystallise the pension to avoid it. The LTA would be £2.5m today if they had just increased it with inflation. If Labour reintroduce it at £2.5m (and half that for the 25% Tax Free calculations) it will be a far less risky proposition. However, IMO, you pay income tax on the money coming out so what is the problem? They could add an IHT aspect to pension pot inheritance instead, the aim being to encourage spending today. Obviously another issue is that a £1m pot can become £2.5m very quickly in a run of high returns years. In addition drawdown means the pot will keep growing throughout retirement, so the LTA made even less sense. Also I never saw a video or description about how it actually worked, so perhaps people were retiring because of not understanding the system fully. Ugh, imagine if the LTA was used as the baseline for a state pension taper.
I am against the threshold but if it is re-introduced it has to be inflation linked. 2mmGBP to start seems best balance
Suggest you share this with Keir Stammer. Serious point as we need more specific detail in their manifesto on their transition plans. It will help make informed decisions. No different to Brexit and will help a no surprises approach. Can’t believe the financial leaders in the Labour Party don’t get this complexity
I can believe it!
The most logical re-introduction would be to apply tax on death instead. It wouldn’t penalise people during life for saving longer but would still bag some tax at the end, It would also be more in line with IHT, (IFS have proposed applying IHT to pension death benefits).
Best of all it wouldn’t affect Doctors or any other DB pensions as they don’t have death benefits (other than spouse scheme pension which is taxed anyway).
I agree. I foresee something like a Pension Nil Rate band, where the LTA stays dead, but on death, the first million quid or so is IHT free, but the rest is taxable in death
Whilst bringing LTA back is tricky, it wouldn't surprise me if Labour reduced the limit on tax free cash. I'm turning 55 before the end of the year, seriously considering taking a significant PCLS and crystalising as much of my DC pot as possible a.s.a.p. (It's at old LTA
already)
I think you've hit nail on head!
Meddling with the LTA will be challenging....but reducing PCLS down from current threshold (~£268k) would be reasonably straightforward/achievable and wouldn't get much resistance/disagreement from the average voter.
Whilst extracting a significant sum and holding outside of a tax efficient wrapper is not ideal, perhaps it's more palatable than running the risk of a (significant) reduction in PCLS threshold.
PCLS? Acronym soup?
@@se3059 Maybe they'll make it a fixed £100k (ish) tax free (they should retain the 25% lump limit, or even reduce it, but high lumps will incur tax over £100k) - if your pension pot is smaller than £400k you will benefit (90%+ of people), if it's above you will lose out. However it is something you can plan around, unlike the LTA and investment returns.
They might, but it will still cause many people to crystallise their pension and retire. So, could be another own goal if they think it through.
@@philipjamesparsons LTA is fundamentally incompatible with drawdown pensions that will still be growing, as you crystallise 4-5% a year. I fear Labour will kill drawdown and force us all back onto annuities.
Much like inheritance tax many more people will *think* this affects them when it won't. The government could have just raised the cap in line with inflation like they should have raised the income tax threshold but one benefits the type of people who vote for them more than the other
A further issues I've found, in the context of these complexities, is that enquiries sent to the 2 organisations with which I have pensions have elicited quite irrelevant "cut and paste" replies. It seems as if the staff, including at one of the UK's biggest private pension providers and the biggest public sector provider, have yet to learn that new rules actually exist, let alone be able to answer more detailed questions about them.
Thank you for the video Pete. This is absolutely relevant me as approach 60 and consider whether to retire or not.
Labour's stated intended exemptions for senior Doctor's and Civil servants with big DB pensions, whilst wanting to tax more heavily those in private industries with less secure DC schemes would be a huge kick in the teeth for anyone that has worked very hard and sacrificed to contribute heavily into a pension. Perhaps they are cynically calculating the benefit from some banal rich v poor headlines versus the potential loss of a few hundred thousand votes and added complexity?
I suspect someone clever than myself would challenge the exemption using the equalities act, under the JR process - and given that the Tories have already lost a challenge which is still not fully resolved around civil service pensions and changes they made under that legislation, that only a fool would tinker in the pension legislation.
I always planned to retire somewhere between 63-65 in line with my grandparents - purely to have some life to enjoy without the pressure of work. But even though it is some way off, I am starting to think I will go at 60, have slightly less income, and just get out and enjoy life, who wants to work themselves into an early grave.
@@DS-cf1zc certainly see if work will be happy with a 4 day week, or even a 3 day week, or move into part-time contracting for the final few years. Ease out of work, ease into retirement.
@@grahambriggs8338
Thank you for the suggestion and idea, it is something I will give good thought.
Great video and addresses the exact questions that have been bothering me as I approach retirement. I'm in the fortunate position of having a half decent DB pension (about 90% of the previous LTA) and have also been contributing in recent years to a DC scheme. Until removal of the LTA I was managing down the amount I was contributing each month to the DC pension to reduce the amount I would overshoot the LTA by. In the last year or so however I've significantly increased my contributions to use the full annual allowance which is exactly one of the scenarios you mention. I simply would not have done this if the LTA hadn't been removed, so should I be penalised for taking this action, doesn't seem fair to me. I'm actually planning to retire in Aug 25 which I understand will crystalise my DB pension so perhaps that in itself will come to my rescue. I'll be watching with interest for any further announcements if / when Labour get their chance to govern. Fingers crossed for a sensible approach.
Glad it was helpful, @topps100!
Labour still promoting a jealousy tax. The LTA never made any economic sense, it was a tax on inflation and investment performance.
If, for example I had £1.5m in my pension (I wish that was true!) and older than 55, I would be looking to take out £250k tax free asap, before any announcement from a new Labour govt or indeed before any announcement during a General Election campaign
Were there any charges if you have a pension pot which is £2mio but you aren’t withdrawing more than the £1mio LTA figure but are passing the rest of the pot down to your beneficiaries?
There were charges; there aren’t now. Unless the LTA comes back…
here's hoping for a restart at Zero for all !
Absolutely - can you imagine?!
Yep, just £Zero every ones bank Account as soon as Labour get into office it would be Epic. The UK would become the Socialist Capital of the world........ OK moving on.
Did the The 1993 Judicial Pension Scheme have rules so that the Lifetime Allowance did not apply so they could just do the same to senior Doctors and consultants to allow them to just carry on working ?
The LTA is just rubbish.
Adjusting the amount you can add to the pension pot is simple and achieves any goals Labour would want.
This is sensible. I don't think that the annual pension input limit needed to be increased recently from £40K to £60K. The former was quite high anyway and beyond most earners ability to achieve so achieved its purpose of helping people to save towards their retirement. Anything more is simply an unnecessary tax giveaway.
Decent DB pension transfer values need to come back!
Dont transfer out unless you plan to die within 15 years. DB benefits are worth more than moving the pot into a drawdown. 30% more on my retirement illustration
The public sector pensions were often DB and did not and not have transfer values.
@johnporcella2375 Lots of public sector pensions are now based on career average rather than final salary
But the LTA calculation was still applied at retirement.
Public funded db pensions are not able to transfer out, only the privately funded db pensions were allowed to transfer out.
I know these rules are abolished but what were they and did they affect a pension pot that had a value of more than £1.3mio, even when you aren’t withdrawing this money? I.e. it’s sitting there in an invested state.
You are over the previous LTA limit already. No issue until you start taking your pension, if they reintroduce it….
Hi Pete,
I currently have a SSAS pension and have individual protection above the current LTA. Watched your excellent video on tax free amount and felt clear that I would be able to access 25% tax free of my individual protection as I haven't crystallised any pension yet. However my SSAS administrator is saying that I'm not allowed to crystallise any amount of my pot until the government has sorted out some practicalities at their end for people above LTA and with protection. Is this something you're aware off? Any response would be greatly appreciated.
I haven’t heard that, no. I’d push back and what specific guidance they are waiting on. It’s easy to blame ‘government’ when in fact it’s the provider themselves that haven’t sorted out their own systems.
@@MeaningfulMoney Thank you for your prompt reply. Will certainly be pushing back again . Keep up the excellent videos !
You might need to change trustees!
Perhaps Labour will bring back LTA as the current government’s decision to abolish was met with their heavy objection. If Labour did bring back the LTA my preference would be for it to be re-indexed to a higher level than before (~£1.5m) (for both tax free lump sum and contributions ), which should avoid the damage of high earners such as Drs giving up work and also those at or near crystalisation kept on course.
It is like Stamp Duty, another stealth tax. Pensions are better without it and also it encourages saving for retirement. the Gov want that. Ok a sensible one does.
Let's not forget Starmer has history for breaking pledges. I'm sure he'll do the same here.
Not just helpful, but gold dust... The LTA has always been a disaster being up and down more times the the proverbial drawers!
Thank you. I absolutely agree!
I thought they were just down only!
Given that the tax free amount is now capped, does it not make sense to crystallise a pot over 1,070,100 in order to allow this to grow in an ISA? I suspect Labour won't reintroduce the LTA with a more generous tax free amount...
Yes but limited to 20k a year to isa, even using a spouses pot would take 7 years to drain it all. Having it sit in a general investment account while waiting to move to ISA over 7-14 years instead of leaving in the pension would have big tax additions and even push your main drawn down into next tax bracket due to capital gains and dividends
The 4 July election now brings this all to a head. Really hard to make (or not make) decisions now that will impact for a lifetime based on such a degree of uncertainty. It would be good if pensions policy, as with interest rate decisions, could be taken further from the direct control of politicians given the short term political influences that tend to apply.
What if they brought it back but raised the allowance to £1.5m? That shouldn't penalise anyone who's gone over in the last year, and gives some headroom to incentivise doctors to keep working. Ideally it would be index linked, too.
Would need to be index linked. However if you keep it in equities it will rapidly exceed even an increased annual allowance of £1.5M
Would labour outline in a manifesto what it plans to do in office.
Ha ha ha, no chance. Lots of vague meaningless promises that sound good to the general population but will be insignificant. Labour will be a disaster but the tories need a kick up the bottom and usually this is getting kicked out of office.
What hacks me off is that everyone other than the ultra rich gets taxed left right and centre.
Labour is always tax and spend. They will waste tons of money and either borrow or tax it out of the general population.
The problem is that the old LTA was just too low a level after repeated cuts to it. People of modest means who have saved into pensions were breaching it. I don't see the case for a LTA at all, sure, cap the maximum tax relief per annum but why should good performance in a person's portfolio be so heavily penalised?
You call a £1M fund 'modest'? What planet are you on?
People should be careful what they wish for - Labour never change.
I hope they don’t change I quite like a decent NHS and public services in general
It was the Conservatives who reduced the LTA from £1.8m to £1m causing the issues in the first place. If they had raised it in line with inflation it would be on its way to £2.5m now. It really should be there to catch out the 1%, not the top 10%. Specific exemptions would be grossly unfair to those not exempted, who likely have riskier, high sacrifice, DC pensions.
A £1m pension pot is peanuts. Someone with a £1m pension will be living a very basic ordinary life. The LTA should be set at a level that would apply to the rich e.g. £15m or £20m, definitely not £1m.
Eh? I suppose what you define as "ordinary" is not what I should be minded to call it.
It works out at 50k pa for a final salary pension. Similar figure for an annuity from 1m pot.
Great point but labour will want to please the far left so logic won't be applied.
How much money do you want, greedy bar stewards
@johnporcella2375 True.
But the problem with the LTA is that it encourages highly skilled, highly trained people to quit work early. They, after all, make up the well paid types. The tax system should not do that. This is why they are talking about making exemptions from it for doctors.
A tax that only applies to un-popular professions is not really a great idea.
Just to throw a potential scenario out there:
- Labour gets elected in November and immediately reduces PCLS threshold from current ~£268k to £x..
- Protects this legislation with Anti-forestalling
I've no idea if its their plan but sounds lot easier than trying to re-introduce an LTA.
If it was their plan I should imagine it'd be one they'd want keep a lid on until after election!
Labour= No plan, they haven't a clue
Hi Pete. My understanding is that for a retired individual who has a pot in excess of £1.073m and no longer contributing to a pension, that it would be wise to take any remaining tax free cash and designate the remaining funds to drawdown thus avoiding the lifetime allowance charge. I suppose the Labour government could legislate retrospectively otherwise, but does that sound right?
Maybe. I really can’t tell you what is ‘wise’ as everyone’s situation is different. There is no charge right now of course, but it’s worth thinking about if it comes back in…
I'm in the situation you outline....
I think retrospective action is unlikely but do think "large" pots are vulnerable to tax grabs from future Labour government either by LTA re-introduction or PCLS threshold reductions.
I'm in final process implementing what you are suggesting.....time will tell whether it will be a "wise" move, but I definitely feel more comfortable taking this action than taking a "wait and see" approach.
One downside is excess sum outside of tax-efficent wrapper's....but it's a downside I'm prepared to live with.
@@se3059 Similar situation too. Turned 55 in January. Took maximum PCLS based on Fixed Protection 2016. Paid mortgage off. Put everything remaining into drawdown. Did this with 4 separate direct contribution schemes (brokers). A bit of a headache to go through the process, but got it all done before April 6th. Whether this will eventually turn out to be the best decision remains to be seen, but with the information available it was the call that I made. Hope that the process goes as smoothly as possible for yourself, and best of luck.
Labour will also raid the ISAs. Vote accordingly.
Simple answer....don't vote Labour, even if the Tories have been an abysmal shower of shit.
Iv always feel better when Labour are in
There are more things to consider than just the tax you’ll pay on your pension. And maybe I could remind you the lifetime allowance was £1.8M under the last labour government and has been reduced many times under the tories.
Gosh a lovely bs set up question and answer session already. This channel must be getting big time!! 😂😂
Getting there.
Of course the bs I was referring to was the hook for some advisor that has been deleted. Obviously not referring to anything else 😬
So anyone who saved for a good Pension, is approaching retirement, or works in the public sector, would be absolutely nuts to vote Labour.
Correction- anyone would be absolutely nuts to vote Labour.
I’m voting Labour and I’m certainly not nuts
Keep those hands still…rule #1 of public speaking
Could not disagree more!
The content would be better if your hands were not flailing about…..I cover up the screen
People should be allowed to put money away it creates wealth
Socialists will be Very Interested in large Pensions…of others ….
Yep, just remember what Gordon Brown did, raiding the pensions of people who had worked hard for it to squander on people who hadn't worked hard for anything.
In 2006 it was touted as "Pensions Simplification"...............Ha!
I know, right. It’s a mockery of that now!
@@MeaningfulMoney, pensions are an easy target for tax-grabs.
Thank God for DB pensions.
The Lifetime allowance applies to DB schemes too!
@@MeaningfulMoney True, but it would have to be a much bigger DB pension that mine!
Was that 25% on top of your marginal tax rate?
Yup. The 55% was essentially the 25% off the top, plus higher rate tax off the balance. Most people opted for scheme pays, which was just the 25%
Why not just reduce the annual allowance to say £30k and forget about the LTA? An instant tax win for the government without upsetting the large number of people who are set to retire if they think their current pot is in jeopardy. Too simple?
The annual allowance at £40K was leading to problems for senior NHS staff too, that's why it was raised to £60K. Reducing it to £30K would have similar results to reintroducing the LTA, i.e. lots of GPs and consultants deciding to retire.
My understanding was that the tapered annual allowance was the main cause of the doctors problems. Having now been moved up their new biggest issue would be LTA risk and so a reasonable compromise would be a reduced AA without LTA charge risk? This would in effect meet Labour’s aim of limiting pension build up without having to spend more money on complicated legislation to reverse the recent changes and give certainty for those who are near or above the old LTA
The problem for NHS staff is that we don’t have an actual pot. It is a crazy calculation and it feels like the figure is picked out of the sky. It is essentially a membership scheme so the more you earn, the more you pay but that does not mean that you actually get more pension in the end. Also, the pension payment levels are automatic so there is no way of reducing payments, if you are going to hit AA limit. It is a complete mess and resulted in 5 figure AA charges that were utterly disproportionate to one’s predicted pension income.
@@darrenconey8507 if they want to limit pension build up then they need to get rid of the tax free allowance clawback at £100k. That is the biggest cause of pension build up for people earning enough to hit pot sizes over £1m. The pension allowance taper is another regressive concept. Fiscal drag has caused a lot of additional issues with these thresholds.
If it ever did? How many hidden nasties would there be???
We’ll see…
No politicians should be able to fiddle with pension terms without some sort of independent panel reviewing and approving changes. If such a body was established it would be very difficult for future govs to bypass it without appearing reckless (think Liz Truss and OBR).
Govt should stop throwing money on wars and defence corruption. Use this money for the UK public.
Sadly when there are rogue states like Russia around with Putin in charge, cutting defence spending is the last thing we can afford to do.
It's our number 1 reason, not to vote for Labour or Liberals. We worked hard saved hard and and we're enjoying our retirement now. If they get in there is always the Algarve.
It's not relevant for 95% of people, so why talk about it?
So the 5% don't matter?