The Government has been very focussed on achieving political consensus on pensions, with some success especially on state pension reform. But on one area of pensions it's failed completely. No-one outside Government would pretend that the current rules on pension vehicles after age 75 are anything but a mess.
The current situation results from a sad combination of misunderstanding, mistrust and political dogma. The misunderstanding was over how we must deal with customers. The Government had the best of intentions in pensions simplification, and initially showed willingness to embrace genuine simplification. A key early point for it was a gentleman’s agreement with providers that they wouldn’t run ‘buy now while stocks last’ campaigns while the legislation was being developed, and this largely held. But attempts to build on this voluntary restraint broke down when they conflicted with regulat...
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