Earl Cathcart
Main Page: Earl Cathcart (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)Department Debates - View all Earl Cathcart's debates with the HM Treasury
(13 years, 7 months ago)
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Earl Cathcart
My Lords, I ask this question with a certain amount of self-interest. Is it the Government’s intention to remove the requirement to buy an annuity when a person gets to a certain age? If it was made optional for the owner of the pension pot, they could receive the annual income from that pension, albeit probably smaller than the annuity, and then the capital sum would fall into the estate on death.
Lord Sassoon
My Lords, I am happy to confirm to my noble friend that the Government have announced that compulsory annuitisation at age 75 will end. As an interim measure, we have raised the limit from 75 to 77 years to make sure that people are not trapped in compulsory annuitisation while we consult—as we have been doing—on a new system that gives people greater choice as to how they save for their retirement.