Trust and respect for MPs at rock bottom

28/01/2008

Your article “Your chance to talk to Gordon Brown” has prompted me to put pen to paper - or finger to keyboard - on the subject of taxation, and in particular the tax on occupational pensions.

In all the years that Gordon Brown was Chancellor he did very little to help the pensioner with miserly annual increases on our state pensions, and as a consequence many of us rely totally on our occupational pensions for a better quality of life in retirement.

If Gordon, or the current Chancellor, sincerely wished to improve the lot of pensioners, there is a very simple way of doing it. Reduce or stop taxing those of us that have paid our income during our working life - in most cases of my generation forty five years. My wife and I between us pay £250 per month in tax on our occupational pensions, or £3,000 per year. What a difference that amount would make to our standard of living during retirement - but I will not be holding my breath! No one over the age of 70 years should pay income tax.

As with many people my trust and respect for MP’s is at rock bottom. If it is their own well being or future in jeopardy they simply vote themselves out of danger - at the tax payers’ expense. Perhaps I am just becoming a grumpy old man.

BL Leigh, Carmarthenshire