Treasury

Lord Hutton's recommendations for increasing employee contributions to help fund public sector pension schemes have been shelved from this year's Budget, the Treasury confirms.

Pension reformer Lord Hutton has hosted a series of 13 private forums with industry chiefs to hear first-hand concerns and ideas for his reforms, the Treasury confirms.

Employers are being warned there are only 90 days left before changes to pensions taxation are implemented on 6 April.

In the second part of our run-down of the top 20 most read Professional Pensions Online news articles in 2010, we look at the 10 most popular stories of the year.

Access to new flexible drawdown pensions will be restricted to people with a lifetime pension income of a minimum of £20,000 a year, the Treasury says.

The government has announced it will introduce legislation in the Finance Bill 2011 to reduce the annual allowance from £255,000 to £50,000 and the lifetime allowance from £1.8m to £1.5m.

Individuals who exceed the annual allowance may be allowed to meet the tax charges from their pension benefits, a Treasury consultation paper says.

The government would be "ill advised" to alter the discount rate to calculate the amount public sector employees pay into unfunded pension schemes, the Trades Union Congress says.

The Local Government Pension Scheme will become "unsustainable" following cuts outlined in last month's Comprehensive Spending Review, the GMB warns.

The government announced its long-awaited plans for restricting pensions tax-relief last Thursday - replacing the complex legislation put in place by the last administration in the Finance Act 2010.