Dragging OAPs into the tax net is disgraceful
I was shocked to read last week that millions of pensioners who rely on a full state pension face being dragged into the tax net due to a stealth raid. This is payback for the absolutely dire way this Government threw taxpayers’ money around like confetti during Covid, with a large portion of it going straight down the drain.
Now they are targeting pensioners to try to get all of that money back. It’s not right.
Beatrice Moore, Pembrokeshire
I have written to my local Tory MP regarding this very subject to warn her that I think many pensioners who are grateful for the triple lock will ultimately face losing this in paying tax.
Margaret Hartridge, Hornchurch
The Government is a disgrace, leave the pensioners alone. They should be comfortable in their later years after working all their lives. The Government insists on them basically working until they drop, just to afford to live. It’s disgraceful – there’s no care for the people at all.
A. Dixon, Worcestershire
The pension rise may be higher than the tax threshold but it’s still well below the minimum wage. Worse still, the British pension is a disgrace compared to that of our European counterparts. Rip-off Britain strikes again – the country that puts taxpayers, many that
worked all their lives, since the age of 14, at the back of the queue.
V. O’Doherty, East Sussex
The idea of giving pensioners a pension increase then taking some of it back in tax is mind-bogglingly stupid. All it will do is create bureaucracy and, particularly if it involves self-assessment, confuse and annoy many.
Alan Stead,
Loftus, North Yorkshire
Plenty of pensioners don’t have the internet, so expecting them to do a tax self-assessment online is crazy. Recently I did an online tax self-assessment and noticed that one of the questions was about
whether you had ever taken part in a tax avoidance scheme.
I can imagine a lot of confused pensioners accidentally answering yes to that.
Mary Wells, Gloucester
The state pension is classed by the Government as a payment benefit, so why will only pensioners pay tax on benefits whereas most other benefit claimants pay no tax?
To me, it is gross age discrimination to tax only certain people in our society while allowing others to claim, in a lot of cases, far more than pension payments.
Harry Johnston, Leicester