George Osborne defends pensions overhaul in 2014 Budget

The Chancellor said that pensioners were ‘responsible people who are capable of making decisions about their future’.

17:28 20 March 2014

After announcing pension reforms in Wednesday’s budget, several parties have reacted against George Osborne’s proposed changes to annuities. Some think that as retirees will be allowed to use their pension all at once as soon as they enter their retirement age, this will affect the way people fund and spend their retirement money.

However, Chancellor George Osborne defended the pensions overhaul saying that retirees are “responsible people who are capable of making decisions about their future.”

He explained: "It's all part of a coherent pension reform,"

"So we have a more generous basic state pension, less means-testing and that enables us to get rid of a quite old fashioned set of government requirements, put in place many decades ago, that people had to take out annuities.

"While annuities might be right for many people, they are not right for many, and returns from annuities have been much lower over the last 15 years or so.

"In the end, people who have saved through their lives, who have earned that money, I think should be trusted to make their own decisions, with good advice, about what to do with that money in retirement."