27 September 2006
IFA Promotion, the organisation promoting the benefits of
independent financial advice, has revealed that £2 billion of
pension credits will remain unclaimed this year, with between 34%
and 44% of pensioners failing to realise their entitlements.
And what is more, working people in company pension schemes are
also missing out on huge sums by neglecting to save in
tax-efficient ways. In fact, high-rate taxpayers that are covered
for their retirement by a company pension scheme will gift an
unnecessary extra £656 million to the tax man this year by
failing to make Additional Voluntary Contributions.
David Elms, Chief Executive of unbiased.co.uk, said:
"Under-provision for retirement remains a crucial problem for the
UK and those that are in a position to save more should be doing
so. However, it seems that people are compounding the situation -
be it through apathy or confusion - by failing to claim vital
sources of retirement income in the form of tax credits. Likewise,
retirement savers are not making things any easier for themselves
by overlooking the need to top-up their company pension pot.
