Three things we learned this week

Retirement Planner’s round-up of the top pension stories this week.

Autumn Statement: Osborne to ‘unlock' £20bn from pension funds

The Chancellor has confirmed he will unlock £20bn of pension fund assets to invest in private infrastructure in a bid to "overhaul the physical infrastructure of our nation".

Speaking in the Autumn Statement this afternoon, Chancellor George Osborne said he had negotiated an agreement with two pension organisations, previously confirmed as the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), to "unlock" pension funds savings.

The agreement feeds into the Treasury's National Infrastructure Plan, published today, which has indentified 500 infrastructure projects which could draw on private sector money.

To read more click HERE

Autumn Statement: State pension age to hit 67 by 2026

Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed the state pension age (SPA) will reach 67 by 2026.

The state pension age will already rise to 66 by 2020 instead of 2026 under previous plans.

The move to bring the rise to 67 eight years early was anticipated after pensions minister Steve Webb said the government was considering the further rise in September.

To read more click HERE

HMRC relaxes pension ‘carry forward' rules

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has altered its interpretation of annual allowance rules to let investors save more this year.

Under rules that came into force in April this year, investors would are allowed to "carry forward" their annual allowance (AA) on pension contributions from the previous three years to avoid paying high tax charges on contributions of more than £50,000 this year.

Previously, these rules were interpreted so that investors who saved more than £50,000 in 2009/10 or 2010/11 would use up some of their AA from previous tax years, reducing what they could carry forward.

To read more click HERE