Thursday 23 April 2009

Savings & Pensions Campaign

Rugby joined in with the Conservative Party's national campaign on Saturday with a stall in the town centre. we gathered signature on a petition calling on the Government to abolish income tax on savings for basic rate taxpayers and increase the pensioners personal allowance by £2000. Well, we didn't get either of these in the budget but the message of support for these groups partly got through. The amount people can put into ISAs goes up from £7,200 to £10,200 although whether this will restore a savings culture remains to be seen. Pensioners will get a higher basic pension and additional allowances but there doesn't appear to be any extra real incentive for people to make their own provisions for their retirement. People need encouragement to do the right thing during their working life rather than being penalised for it.