The chancellor’s decision to levy inheritance tax on pensions is the latest policy change to throw retirement plans up in the air.

And for Sharan Sammi, 44, it is one too many. The business owner has now abandoned her pension due to fears over any more future changes and is instead using an Isa to save for retirement.

Sammi, who lives in the West Midlands, has always been a saver. As a student, she stashed away her earnings as a part-time bank cashier and was able to buy her first rental property aged 24.

But she is worried that her pension savings could be vulnerable to changes in the budget on November 26, as politicians look for ways to plug the rumoured £30 billion black hole. She prefers to have her money invested in a way that will allow her to react quickly to any rule changes.

She said: “Having an Isa is super-important to me. It’s more manageable because you’ve got more control, you’ve got more say.

“At the end of the day, you could then turn round and say, well, actually, I’m going take all my money out of the Isa. Whereas with the pension pot, you can’t control any of those rules. It’s like having the rug taken out from under your feet.”

Sammi has been married for 13 years and has two children. She uses up her full £20,000 Isa allowance every year and has a six-figure investment portfolio. She also owns several rental properties and plans to use her Isa and rental income to give her a comfortable retirement. She puts away the maximum £9,000 each year into her children’s Junior Isas.

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Sammi has a modest pension she built up during her 20 years working in the banking sector. During her time as an employee, she always paid into her workplace pension because her employer agreed to match her contributions. However, she has long since stopped contributing and now says her pension is worth less than her Isa portfolio.

Sammi worries that potential changes to the tax-free lump sum could affect both her and her mother, who is still waiting to take her tax-free cash. She says watering down this valuable benefit could prove as unpopular as the closure of final salary pension schemes, adding: “It’s going to be a big blow from everything that we knew historically over the last 20 years.”

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The planned introduction of inheritance tax on pensions is also discouraging her from making further pension contributions. “It is another blow, because you’re taking everything away, all the benefits, all the plus points,” she said.

Helen Morrissey from the investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown said the idea that tax-free cash could be reduced or tax relief tinkered with can make people hesitant to lock money away long-term.

But she sounded a note of caution. “It’s really important not to base your long-term planning on rumours. For instance, deciding to take your tax-free cash now, without a plan for what you are going to do with it, risks you exposing it to taxes such as dividend tax or capital gains that it otherwise wouldn’t have been.”

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She added: “Pensions are a hugely tax-efficient way to grow your money for the long term and it’s important to take a long-term approach rather than knee-jerk reactions to short-term rumours. As well as the benefit of tax relief, you will get the added boost of an employer contribution if you are in a workplace scheme. This can make an enormous difference to how much goes into your pension and can really boost your financial resilience.”

However, nothing will persuade Sammi to contribute to a pension, unless the government could rule out future changes. “You can’t control what they determine,” she said. “And it’s not just going to have a knock-on effect on you personally — it’s going to have a knock-on effect on your family.

“There’s so much uncertainty. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the coming 20 years. I want to put all my focus and attention on what I can control.”