The latest Budget was delivered on 29 October 2018. Although there had again been rumours of pension-related changes in the run up to the Budget, there were no major pension-related announcements made within it. There were, however, the following announcements:
- The Lifetime Allowance will increase by the September 2018 CPI figure of 2.4%, which will lead to an increase from £1,030,000 to £1,055,000 with effect from 6 April 2019.
- The government will work closely with the pensions industry, and provide some funding, to support the development of pensions dashboards to help people to see information about all their pension savings, including their State Pension, in one place.
- The government has since released a feasibility report and consultation document on the delivery of pension dashboards. As part of this, the government has announced that it hopes for a first dashboard to be introduced in 2019-20 by the new Single Financial Guidance Body (SFGB), followed by other industry dashboards. Data submission will initially be voluntary, although the government intends to legislate to require compulsory in due course.
- The government will look to remove barriers to investment in the UK’s innovative firms and infrastructure projects (referred to as “patient capital”) by defined contribution pension schemes and will consult further on this, including possible changes to the charge cap.
- To coincide with the Budget, the government has brought into force its legislation to ban cold calling on pensions. This means that it is now illegal for individuals to be contacted by phone about a possible transfer of pension benefits.
- The draft Scottish Budget for 2019/20 was published on 12 December 2018 and will impact Scottish rates of income tax from 6 April 2019.
- From 6 April 2019, there will also be Welsh rates of income tax. However, the Welsh Government has indicated that these will be set to be the same as those paid by English and Northern Irish taxpayers. Welsh taxpayers will be denoted by a C prefix to their tax code.