For 54-year-old Homiyar Wykes, Labour have been “the worst” of the parties when it comes to pension policy, although he admits most party ideas during the election had been “uninspiring, pointless and useless.”
He is concerned about what the new Government will do with his pension pot and how it could affect others approaching retirement.
Homiyar said: “I don’t think it’s a good idea that Labour want to increase investment from pension funds in UK markets. Diversification is important – I don’t think the government should tell us where to put our money.”
In their manifesto for the recent general election, Labour stated that it would “act to increase investment from pension funds in UK markets.”
However, it isn’t clear if pension funds will be forced or only encouraged to switch investments to domestic assets – or the percentage of assets that might be switched.
In Homiyar’s own retirement fund, he saves around £1,600 a month, and currently has £500,000 in his PensionBee account.
He told i: “I didn’t actively plan for my pension until I was 50. I’m not looking to wait for the state pension age but am hoping to phase into retirement. I would want to continue working in some way even after I retire.
“I collected a number of pension pots while working at different companies. At one point, a company changed my pension provider three times – by consolidating my pots into one provider, it’s just so much easier to manage.”
The financial controller, from North-West London, told i: “In short, so much damage has happened to pensions over the last seven years – from taxing them to constantly changing regulations.
“I’m very despondent about the lack of imagination on pensions for what is an ageing society. I think they seriously need to think about pensions.
“On top of that, the Conservatives love the triple-lock. It gets all pensioners excited and gets them to the ballot box, but it’s an expensive and boring policy. It’s no use to us but is attractive to those over the age of 67.”
Now Labour is in charge, he thinks they need to address the issue of people not having enough saved for retirement.
“The government needs to come up with a real incentive to save for pensions. People should be encouraged to put money away for older age – if they can pay for their care it can help relieve pressure on social care.
“People should be able to live comfortably in retirement, similar to the Dutch. They work on three principles – government contribution, own savings and a workplace pension. I’ve managed my retirement similar to them.”
‘Labour haven’t given much detail’
Bruce Gordon, a software engineer from Dorset who has just retired, says that Labour haven’t convinced him when it comes to pensions.
The 61-year-old, who currently has a retirement income of around £30,000, with £440,000 saved in a private pension with Scottish Widows, told i that he’s “not particularly happy” with some of Labour’s plans.
He said: “I heard Labour might tamper with the pension tax-free allowance, and that pension funds would need to be invested in UK markets. Now, I’ve retired based on that assumption, so if it changes I wouldn’t be happy with it.”
There have been suggestions that Labour might make changes to pension tax relief but this has not been confirmed or denied. Currently, as much as 25 per cent of pension money can be accessed without tax to pay, up to a limit of £268,275.
Bruce also believes that younger people need to be encouraged to save more into their retirement fund.
He said: “However, I think there aren’t enough policies to encourage young people to put enough into their pensions. Generally, our state pension is lower than a lot of countries – it needs to be increased in line with other European countries. Our pension age is also quite high, and it could even go higher.”
For Bruce, one question on his mind is how the next government will grow the economy. He said: “I’m not hearing people talking about growing the economy.
“If it grew, they could afford to look after pensioners better – but no one is saying how they will do it. In general, I haven’t been convinced by the detail of Labour, and it could be more defined.”
Labour has been contacted for comment.