Voters back move to axe £1m pension cap

JEREMY Hunt’s decision to scrap the cap on pension savings is backed by 60 per cent of voters a poll found yesterday.

In Wednesday’s Budget, the Chancellor abolished the £1million lifetime tax-free allowance and lifted the annual cap from £40,000 to £60,000. He said this would help prevent doctors and other professionals taking early retirement.

Labour condemned the plan and vowed to reverse it if the party won power next year.

But the study by Omnisis found 60 per cent of voters support scrapping the lifetime allowance, with just 11 per cent opposed. Raising the annual allowance was backed by an even bigger margin.

Sir John Curtice, a polling expert, said: ‘The decision to attack this change may not resonate as strongly with voters as Labour assumes.’ The pension caps have been blamed for driving thousands of doctors into early retirement to avoid crippling penalty charges.

The British Medical Association welcomed Mr Hunt’s move, saying some doctors were already looking to postpone their retirement.

Labour’s Rachel Reeves condemned the £1.1billion scheme as a ‘bung for the 1 per cent’.