On 29 July, chancellor Rachel Reeves targeted 10million pensioners – many on low incomes – by scrapping their winter fuel payment. Minutes later, she scrapped the planned social care cap, designed to spare older people the agony of selling their homes to pay for long-term care.
That’s two mighty blows against the elderly within weeks of winning the election. Just think what damage she’ll do over the next five years.
Reeves will launch a far more punitive raid on October 30, in her autumn Budget, when tax after tax will be aimed at the generation many on the left parody as “boomers”.
That’s short for baby boomers, the generation born directly after the Second World War.
It’s not the only derogatory term they use. Reeves’ new tax advisor, Sir Edward Troup, prefers “codgers”.
Most people call them pensioners. And they’re about to take a fiscal punishment beating.
The left openly deride the Tories as the “pensioners’ party”. There’s an element of truth in that. In the recent wipeout, pensioners were the only age group to stick by the Tories.
Some 40% said they would vote for former PM Rishi Sunak, against just 8% of 18-to-24 year olds and 13% of 25-to-49 year olds.
Almost half of those under 50 voted Labour. The party has no plans to tax them.
Starmer knows who his supporters are, and who they aren’t. And now he’s going to make the wrong ones pay.
After the Reeves axed the winter fuel payment, I said Labour was declaring “intergenerational warfare”. Nothing has persuaded me to change my mind.
While Starmer and Reeve would never say this out loud, their supporters aren’t so shy.
Labour’s number one cheerleader Polly Toynbee is frothing for a pensioner tax raid. She even claimed “the winter fuel allowance made no sense for pensioners not on benefits”.
Try telling that to a pensioner whose total income is just above the pension credit cut-off point of £11,343 a year. They’re not wealthy.
Toynbee is calling for Starmer and Reeves to go a lot further than that. Reeves is likely to oblige.
She will amost certainly lift capital gains tax bands in line with income tax and making unused pension subject to inheritance tax, but there are more.
Reeves may also scrap higher rate tax relief on pension contributions and reduce the £60,000 annual allowance for pension contributions.
After the winter fuel payment shocker, everything is up for grabs.
Toynbee is calling for Reeves to charge “national insurance on all income, not just on pay, including on pensions above a threshold”.
She also wants to hike council tax on the better off – which of course will hit older homeowners – and maybe a one-off wealth tax raid to boot.
Toynbee isn’t an official Labour spokesperson – they’d quickly shut her down if she was – but during the election campaign Starmer made party strategy clear: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people.”
Which only really leaves pensioners. Unless he plans to tax the nine million people aged between 16 and 65 who don’t work, which I doubt.
On current projections, Labour will even start taxing the state pension within two years. What Sunak dubbed a “retirement tax”.
“Boomers have had it too good”, in the words of Sir Edward Troup, who added ominously: “Generational rebalancing is long overdue.”
By targeting pensioners, Labour can generate billions from those who don’t vote for them and hand the cash to those who do. All this talk about “boomers” is just softening us up for the attack.
The autumn Budget is less than three months away – you need to take action now.
