Pensions Ombudsman needs to analyse office

I REFER to the Pensions Ombudsman’s RTÉ broadcast criticising the recent Revenue letters to pensioners where he claimed “not enough homework was done“, that “the matter could be handled more sensitively” and “the gun was jumped a bit”.

If a mistake was made, I suggest, it was Revenue’s failure to warn of the full tax implications on pensions while people were making contributions.

The misinformation on this matter is best illustrated by the Green Paper on pensions, which refers to tax relief on 86 occasions when tax deferral may have been more appropriate.