News

Savings, Investments and Mortgages

The Chancellor decided to avoid making any significant changes to the savings and retirement planning landscape. There were also no changes affecting house buyers.

Pensions

The amount that can be saved tax efficiently into a pension, throughout a working lifetime, remains capped at £1,073,000. No changes were announced to the pensions annual allowance of £40,000, the tax free cash limits or the levels of tax relief applicable on personal contributions, although the announcement of a basic rate Income Tax cut from 20% to 19% starting in 2024 may impact on the relief available on pension contributions.

In 2025/26 the Government will however introduce a system to make top-up payments in respect of contributions made in 2024/25 onwards directly to low-earning individuals saving in a pension scheme using a Net Pay Arrangement. These top-ups will help to better align outcomes with equivalent savers saving into pension schemes using Relief at Source. An estimated 1.2 million individuals could benefit by an average of £53 a year.

State Pensions

The Government is continuing to temporarily suspend the earnings element of the ‘Triple Lock’ used to uprate the State Pension, but has announced that this will be introduced again next April. Therefore the level of basic and new State Pension from 11 April 2023 will rise from £137.60 per week to £141.85 per week and £179.60 per week to £185.15 per week respectively.

Investments and Individual Savings Accounts

The annual ISA allowance remains at £20,000 per person, the same as it has been since April 2017.

The annual subscription limit for Junior ISAs and Child Trust Funds will remain at £9,000.

National Savings and Investments

Green Savings Bonds were made available to customers via NS&I on 22 October last year following the Autumn Budget. These are a 3-year fixed-term savings product and given the recent rise in interest rates, this means the original launch rate of 0.65% has now increased to 1.30% and customers can invest between £100 and £100,000. As with all NS&I products, the Green Savings Bonds come with a HM Treasury-backed 100% guarantee.

The bonds are a world-first innovative product closely linked to the UK Government Green Financing Framework and will provide UK savers with the opportunity to contribute towards the Government’s environmental agenda and take part in the collective effort to tackle climate change.

David Allen Financial Services, as an independent financial adviser, can help you make the most of your savings and investments as well as ensuring your retirement planning makes the most of the tax advantages available. We can also help you plan for a home purchase or remortgage via our Mortgage and Protection Advice Team.  For an initial discussion to see how we can help, please contact one of our team.