The Financial Times has written up the Treasury Select Committee’s call for evidence this week, in which IEA Senior Academic … Continue reading “Pensions tax-free lump sum could be made “less generous” to help repair the nation’s finances”

Pension auto-enrolment was one of the early significant policies arising from the government’s “nudge unit”. The argument was that employees … Continue reading “Let’s roll back auto-enrolment”

In an article in the Times earlier this week I suggested Sajid Javid take a bold approach to tax reform. … Continue reading “Scrapping the tax-free lump sum for pension withdrawal: not such a terrible idea”

A great deal of IEA work corroborates studies produced by the government in suggesting that we have a huge implicit … Continue reading “Is there a solution to the debt timebomb?”

Last week’s public-finance statistics were truly dreadful. They showed that despite a year of fairly robust economic growth, UK government … Continue reading “Defusing the debt time bomb: the challenge”

Government borrowing is currently running 10 per cent higher than last year – exemplifying the already parlous state of the … Continue reading “Danny and the debt mountain”

An introduction to the debt mountain facing young people today. Unfortunately, the real debt is no fairy tale, and there … Continue reading “Danny and the Debt Mountain”

In the Queen’s Speech today, the government is likely to give the go-ahead for large pension schemes along Dutch lines. … Continue reading “UK mega pensions aren’t a bad idea – if government can resist destroying them”

A week ago, Mark Hoban, the former Work and Pensions Minister, called for a reform of tax relief on pensions contributions … Continue reading “Why equalising tax relief on pensions contributions is a bad idea”