Six of the most important pension questions of 2024 answered by STEVE WEBB

Our popular Uncle Steve Webb has celebrated the publication of his 400th retirement column for This is Money.

He marked the occasion with a behind-the-scenes tour and provided valuable tips to get your question answered.

The former Pensions Secretary also revealed some of the lessons This is Money readers could teach his successors in the role he held for five years.

“I think it should be mandatory for every Pensions Minister to read through my This is Money inbox every week to better understand the aspects of the pension system that confuse, anger and frustrate people,” says he.

‘The messages I receive from readers give me good insight into what is going on with the public.’

Concerns about the changes a new government might make were a common theme during the summer election campaign and throughout the rest of the year.

Steve received many questions from people wanting to hear his views on the unfolding events, especially following the announcement in the Budget that pensions would be subject to inheritance tax from 2027.

Below we have selected some of his best columns of 2024. Do you have something you’d like to ask Steve? Then scroll down and discover how you can submit your own pension question.

This was a post-Budget priority for many people, but Steve assured readers that the transfer of pensions and other assets to the surviving spouse will remain free of inheritance tax.

That exemption remains in place, and the main thing that will change from April 2027 is that you must include certain pensions when calculating the value of an estate for inheritance tax purposes, he explained.

‘This mainly includes what the government calls ‘unspent’ balances in defined contribution pensions, as well as certain defined contribution death benefits or defined contribution pensions.’

Steve expressed concern that the new system will be much more involved with grieving families in terms of practical aspects.

Between now and spring 2027, the government will need to work out the details of how the new process will be managed, and this will likely be a topic for future columns.

Steve went on a quest across multiple pension providers, administrators and even continents to find a readers’ fund worth thousands of pounds that had been built up in the mid-1980s.

The path became completely cold at one point. But in two separate columns, he shared the ups and downs of his ultimately successful mission to show people how to track down their own missing pensions.

Steve also wrote a longer one free guide to finding lost pensions published by LCP, where he is a partner.

Anyone who receives tax benefits – whether Working Tax Credit or Universal Credit – should have pension benefits deducted from their income once their benefit has been exhausted, says Steve.

Since the publication of this column and a subsequent story about thousands of people potentially being underpaid by Universal Credit, we have heard from a stream of readers whose benefits have not been calculated correctly.

“If you are told that your personal pension contributions cannot be taken into account, this is incorrect and you should appeal the decision,” says Steve, who is continuing the investigation.

Steve believes that deductions from the state pension resulting from previous periods of ‘outsourcing’ certain benefits to National Insurance are the most common subject of questions in his inbox.

The idea is that you will receive a private pension, as he explains in this column. Later that year he also looked at the mysterious ‘COPE’ figure, which used to appear on state pension forecasts, to explain these state pension deductions.

‘This figure was intended to signal to people that something had been deducted from their state pension because they had taken out contracts in the past, but that they should instead receive a similar amount from a company pension.’

However, the COPE figure has only caused further confusion and has been removed from the forecasts. Steve doesn’t regret it, he says: ‘I’m certainly happy with the silent death of the COPE.’

The ‘normal minimum retirement age’ for private pension funds will increase from 55 to 57 years overnight on April 6, 2028.

A reader asked Steve what the rule change would mean for people like him, who were born within a certain two-year window in the 1970s.

‘Anyone born between April 6, 1971 and April 5, 1973 will find that at age 55 they have a period in which they can draw on their pension, but this will then be disabled for a period of up to two years until they reach the age reached the age of 57. ‘ says Steef.

He advises people who plan to use a private pension and who may be affected to consult their scheme’s rules on this issue, which will become much bigger news in the coming years.

After a story about widows and widowers who may miss out on an inherited state pension, we received a flood of messages from readers.

Steve was concerned when he heard that many on the phone had been given incorrect information by Department for Work and Pensions staff.

He therefore devoted a column to busting myths, to debunk a number of things that surviving relatives were told about the state pension they could inherit.