Treasury Errors Set To Hit 420,000 Pensioners
At a time when pensioners in the UK are coming under enormous financial strain, more than 420,000 will soon receive yet more bad news with confirmation that they will need to repay £135 million in taxes which the government 'forgot' to charge on their pensions since 1983. The repayments will automatically be taken from pensions of the future and result in the average pensioner being £320 a year worse off.
If ever there was a group of society who needed help at this stage of the economic cycle it is the pensioners of the UK. They have seen care costs go through the roof over the last decade, houses sold to pay for sheltered accommodation and benefits slashed. Indeed the winter fuel allowance which the government has been so generous with will affectively be wiped out with this tax bungle.
Many Labour MPs are up in arms about this, claiming that they are suffering at the sharp end with local support for the Labour party slipping away at an alarming rate. Over the last few months the government has managed to incense low paid workers with the 10p tax farce and now they are set to hit unsuspecting pensioners.
Is the government currently on a suicide mission?
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