Closing summary
Time to wrap up…. here are today’s main stories so far:
We’ll be back tomorrow for the latest in the banking crisis, February’s UK inflation report, and an eagerly awaited Federal Reserve decision on US interest rates….
Hunt’s pensions tax break expected to help ‘nearly as many bankers as doctors’
Jeremy Hunt’s pensions tax break for the highest 1% of savers in Britain stands to benefit almost as many bankers as doctors, an economist has said, as the government insisted the budget giveaway was designed to cut NHS waiting lists.
On a day of renewed pressure over the £1bn giveaway, Rishi Sunak argued that scrapping the tax-free lifetime allowance on pensions would encourage more doctors to stay in employment rather than taking retirement.
However, the government has been warned that abolishing the almost £1.1m limit could have a minimal impact on boosting employment, while Labour has promised to reverse the measure.
Torsten Bell, the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said official figures suggested that about 20% of the savers likely to benefit from the change worked in the finance industry.
Bell said:
“It is, yes, lots of doctors – so about a quarter of them are doctors or other senior high-paid medical staff. Twenty per cent, though, work in the financial services sectors. So nearly as many bankers as doctors.”
