Reform’s tax cuts for the rich could come for your pension

Many retirees already struggle to pay for food, rent and other essentials on their state pension (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Would a future Reform UK government steal away your state pension to give more tax cuts to the wealthy?

That’s a question many people are asking after a Reform-linked think tank proposed the abolition of the state pension to fund £75 billion worth of tax cuts for high earners.

The Centre for a Better Britain (CFABB) report, published this week, calls for the scrapping of capital gains and inheritance taxes.

It says that corporation tax is “internationally uncompetitive” and should be reduced from 25 percent to just 15 percent.

Tax cuts for the rich on that scale would require billions of pounds of public spending cuts.

So the Reform UK-led body says pension schemes for teachers and civil servants should also be closed to new entrants.

James Orr, Reform UK’s former head of policy, was previously the chair of the think tank’s advisory board.

He left to join the party in February but was earlier this month suspended after being filmed in an undercover investigation. In the sting, he appeared to suggest ways around British electoral law to secure foreign donations.

“If more people knew about their plans to get rid of our pensions, they would turn against Reform,” says Jane, a pensioner who turns 80 this year and lives in sheltered accommodation.

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“These politicians all seem to think that all pensioners are wealthy. But I often see people my age who clearly need new clothes and shoes but cannot afford to buy them.”

Jane says that most retirees she knows live on their state pension, plus a small workplace pension—and they need both just to pay for essentials.

“People use their pensions to pay their rent,” she says.

“Not everyone was able to buy a house while they were working, and that means you have to find somewhere you can afford to live. That is very difficult these days.

“And people have to make terrible compromises when they are poor.

“If you are not mobile enough to take the bus to the cheaper supermarkets, sometimes you take a taxi. But often you can’t afford to do that, so you end up buying your groceries at the far more expensive local shops.

“That means the limited money you do have runs out more quickly.”

Of course, those are not problems Nigel Farage and the rest of the Reform UK leaders are ever going to face because they are millionaires with several houses.

Farage and his partner already own or share an interest in at least five properties across Surrey, Kent and Essex, valued at over £4 million.

Jane says she hopes that other pensioners turn away from Reform UK.

“These politicians all hope that we are going to die off because they think we are a ‘problem’,” she says.

“But we are not a ‘problem’. We are people who have worked hard all our lives.”