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Brown has made it pointless saving for a pension Letters to the Daily Mail - April 4, 2007 From Anne Holmes, Romily, Cheshire It's obvious why Gordon Brown chose to ignore warnings about the probably damage to pensions following his tax grab. He knew it wouldn't affect his own or any public sector worker's pension, and no doubt assumed companies would make up the shortfall in final salary schemes. Today, no one puts any extra into pensions as they know it's not worth it, and most young people won't unless they're working in the public sector. Most people have decided to put their money into property, with a disastrous effect on house prices. *************************** From M, Davies, Rollesby, Norfolk The Brown pension hit is not that simple. The ordinary taxpayer is expected to fund their own pension, yet public sector workers get massive index-linked pensions paid for by the taxpayer. The Government has gone on a benefits bonanza and that's another cost we have to fund. And now councillors and MPs have voted themselves large pension rises. Who do yo think will pay for these? Brown has made looking after yourself a worthless proposition. The only thing worth doing is becoming a local government outreach office or joining the dole queue. *************************** From Dennis Cochran, Worthing, W. Sussex It hurts me to say this as I am no fan of Gordon Brown, but I do feel he is falsely portrayed as 'the man who stole out pensions'. Granted he removed the ability of pension fund managers to recover 20% of the dividends they receive, but while that is a lot of cash, does that really amount to a death blow? If dividends are 5% per annum of the value of the fund, Brown cut the return on capital by just 1%. And remember, that's the annual addition to the fund and is not an inroad into the fund itself - small by comparison with the gambles taken by fund managers every day. It we can't blame the hapless Mr Brown, then it must be the professional running the funds who 'stole' the 'missing' money - and they are still in charge of funds. *************************** From Robin Bloom, Newcastle-upon-Tyne No one can doubt that Gordon Brown's decisions in 1997 destroyed the British pension system, and the Freedom of Information Act has revealed Brown was fully aware of the crippling consequences his decisions would bring to pension schemes. His actions benefited the Treasury in the short term, but fatally wounded the schemes available to workers in the long term. This clearly was not what either business or the trades unions would have wanted.
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