In the News

Should rich pensioners be taxed more heavily?

Graham Watson

16th February 2017

Phillip Inman argues here that there needs to be a serious rethink of provision for old age. However, whether that involves taxation or an end to the free provision of benefits in kind is another matter.

A little bit of extra detail here to the Resolution Foundation survey regarding the comparative living standards of pensioners; it appears that the headline claim is a little bit more nuanced.

The Resolution Foundation data looks at household income after housing costs and this means that pensioners who have paid off their mortgages are relatively well-to-do.

However, even the Resolution Foundation admits that "before housing costs are paid, the median working-age household still has a higher income than the median pensioner household."

Nevertheless, I'm still of the view that this is an important issue going forward.

Graham Watson

Graham Watson has taught Economics for over twenty years. He contributes to Tutor2U, reads voraciously and is interested in all aspects of Teaching and Learning.

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