Getting rid of the pension annuity age limit of 75 has been described as a “red herring” by an industry expert. This is because around 98% of annuitants would not even be affected by the change as most people buy an annuity well before they are 75.
David Cooper from Just Retirement has said that the bulk of new annuity purchases would be made when people start to be in receipt of their state pension.
However, not everyone is as skeptical about the proposed change. Support for scrapping the annuity age limit has come from the Investment Management Association. Their CEO, a Mr Richard Saunders has argued that as people were taking on the responsibility for pension saving they should “…be granted more flexibility in arranging their retirement income.”
There are some alleged dangers of scrapping the limit, such as the fact that people may become more reliant on the state pensions if their own funds become depleted as a result of not having an annuity.
