Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 23
CFABB Urges Scrapping State Pension and £75 Billion Tax Cuts Before UK Budget
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 23

CFABB Urges Scrapping State Pension and £75 Billion Tax Cuts Before UK Budget

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 23

Summary

  • A 183-page CFABB report proposes abolishing the UK state pension, replacing it with means-tested support and personal retirement accounts seeded with £1,000 at birth.
  • The thinktank says the overhaul would lift productivity and living standards, arguing the current pension is a “Ponzi scheme” and that taxes such as capital gains, inheritance and stamp duty drive wealth and investment away.
  • £75 billion in tax cuts would include slashing corporation tax to 15% from 25% over eight years and removing up to 50% of the existing tax code, though the report does not fully spell out matching spending cuts.
  • Some savings ideas include closing public-sector pension schemes to new teachers and civil servants; the state pension alone is forecast by the DWP to cost £146.1 billion in 2025-26.
  • The proposals, launched by a thinktank closely linked to Reform UK but not formally adopted by the party, arrive weeks before Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government unveils its first budget.

Insights

As the UK state pension nears the tax threshold, is the era of universal retirement benefits quietly coming to an end?
Will the radical push to means-test UK state pensions leave middle-class workers facing a retirement poverty trap?
Could losing your guaranteed state pension force you to work forever if a new means-tested system takes over?