How to handle your savings ahead of this year's Budget

Reports that tax breaks could be cut have led to chunks of retirement pots being withdrawn before the chancellor’s statement. Howard Mustoe asks if the panic is justified

- Howard Mustoe

Ahead of the Budget on 30 October, there has been fevered speculation about changes to pension savers’ tax allowances and other perks.

Reports that pensioners could have tax breaks cut or axed led to savers withdrawing chunks of their retirement pots ahead of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s big announcement.

Other speculation focused on tax breaks for workers planning to retire, spurring them to do the opposite, and pack more cash into their pensions in case their own tax incentives are slashed.

What might the chancellor do?

Reeves has tasked herself with fixing a gap in the nation’s finances of £22bn. She has also pledged to bring the country’s debts to heel and to avoid raising income tax rates, one of the easiest and least popular ways to bring in money.

Instead, she is reportedly considering other revenue-raising means, such as cutting perks or taxing things like gains in the value of assets like company shares or second homes. For at least a couple of previous Budgets, there has been speculation that the generous tax breaks pensioners and pension savers get could be cut. This speculation has intensified.