Budget delivered blow to private pensions

This Government had frequently encouraged citizens (particularly young people) to establish private pension savings.

This seemed reasonable enough; after all, it is wise to provide for an uncertain future. They then brought in the 0.6% pension levy in 2011, which was to run for four years.

This was effectively an unprecedented plunder of capital sums, equivalent to taking money from private savings. To lend justification for this we were told that this money would be used to fund the jobs initiative (where did it all go?). We were also assured that this was a once-off, never to be repeated. Naively, I felt comforted to hear this.