{"id":91423,"date":"2026-07-27T17:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/91423\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:55:32","slug":"john-healy-issued-urgent-pension-warning-ahead-of-first-budget-as-savers-risk-losing-63000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/91423\/","title":{"rendered":"John Healy issued urgent pension warning ahead of first Budget as savers risk losing \u00a363,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Healey has been handed an urgent pension warning ahead of his first Budget as Chancellor.<\/p>\n

Savers who withdraw tax-free cash too early could leave themselves more than \u00a363,000 worse off by missing years of investment growth.<\/p>\n

AJ Bell has written to Mr Healey asking him to confirm that pension tax-free cash entitlements will not be changed in his first Budget.<\/p>\n

The investment platform fears continued speculation could prompt more people to access their retirement savings earlier than planned.<\/p>\n

Its proposed Pension Tax Lock would protect the tax-free lump sum available when people access their pensions, formally known as the pension commencement lump sum. It would also maintain tax relief on pension contributions.<\/p>\n

Tax-free pension withdrawals averaged \u00a37.9billion a year between 2018\/19 and 2022\/23 before surging to \u00a318.3billion in 2024\/25, according to Financial Conduct Authority figures.<\/p>\n

The total did not exceed \u00a38.7billion in any of those five tax years, even after withdrawals increased following the pandemic.<\/p>\n

However, they later climbed to \u00a318.3billion in 2024\/25 amid widespread speculation about possible changes to pension tax-free cash.<\/p>\n

\"JohnChancellor John Healey will honour the commitment first made last year by his predecessor | GB NEWS<\/p>\n

That pattern shattered around the 2024 general election and Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget. Withdrawals surged to \u00a318.3billion in the 2024\/25 tax year, an increase of roughly \u00a310billion above the norm.<\/p>\n

AJ Bell believes the surge was driven by speculation that the Government could reduce the amount savers are allowed to withdraw from their pensions tax-free.<\/p>\n

The provider said uncertainty prompted people to take money out of long-term investments and place it in bank accounts while they waited for clarity. Doing so meant their savings could miss out on future investment growth.<\/p>\n

AJ Bell chief executive Michael Summersgill said: “Pension providers raised alarm bells at both the 2024 and 2025 Budgets, warning that cash was being withdrawn from long-term pension investments and parked in the bank due to rumours around the future of tax-free cash.”<\/p>\n

\"Pension<\/p>\n

Pension providers raised alarm bells at both the 2024 and 2025 Budgets<\/p>\n

| GETTY<\/p>\n

He added: “The FCA’s own data indicates that at the 2024 Budget alone savers pulled an additional \u00a310 billion. That’s money being taken out of long-term investments, which is bad for the economy and bad for people’s long-term retirement plans.”<\/p>\n

Official figures covering the period around the 2025 Budget have not yet been published. However, Mr Summersgill said the experience of pension providers suggested withdrawals had continued to increase.<\/p>\n

He said: “Although data is yet to be published for 2025, the experience of pension firms across the industry indicates the trend is only getting worse.”<\/p>\n

AJ Bell believes the appointment of John Healey as Chancellor provides an opportunity to end the uncertainty before his first Budget.<\/p>\n

\"Couple<\/p>\n

Early withdrawals conflict with the Government’s ambitions to improve retirement outcomes<\/p>\n

| GETTY<\/p>\n

The provider argues that making this commitment would not require additional Treasury spending or new legislation, but would give savers greater confidence to leave their retirement money invested.<\/p>\n

AJ Bell launched a parliamentary petition supporting the proposal in 2025. It attracted more than 20,000 signatures from savers and financial advisers who opposed reductions to tax-free cash allowances or contribution tax relief.<\/p>\n

The company warned that continued speculation could push more people into making long-term financial decisions based on fear.<\/p>\n

It also argued that early withdrawals conflict with the Government’s ambitions to improve retirement outcomes and direct more pension investment into the UK economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Healey has been handed an urgent pension warning ahead of his first Budget as Chancellor. Savers who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[253,4429,16,5,6],"class_list":["post-91423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-money","tag-pensions","tag-sgg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116993230303147545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}