Pension Funds: Calls to rethink pension tax plan

THE GOVERNMENT was urged by its own backbenchers to rethink moves to tax pension funds yesterday as Tories claimed at least 630,000 people would lose an average pounds 75 a year as a result.

Ian Pearson, who was parliamentary aide to the former paymaster-general Geoffrey Robinson, said he had "sympathy" for the critics of the Government's position, saying ministers needed to consider "concerns of the poorest pensioners".

He was joined by Edward O'Hara (Lab, Knowsley South) who questioned ministers whether the cut had really been "necessary".

But Dawn Primarolo, the Paymaster-General, said that nearly all shareholders would be unaffected by the change and the Government was also offering "alternatives" such as the new Individual Savings Accounts (Isas). "It is simply untrue to suggest that we have left pensioners without any other vehicles," she said.

But opening the Tory-led debate on Pensioners and Dividend Tax Credits, David Heathcoat-Amory, the Conservative Treasury spokesman, said the pounds 75-a-year loss could affect at least 630,000 people.