Lifetime allowance and members of defined benefit pension schemes

‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple’ is the famous first line of Jenny Joseph’s 1961 poem ‘Warning’ one of the UK’s favourite reflections on ageing. She promises to spend her pension on unsuitable things and have no money left for butter. Perhaps it is a sign of growing old – I am two years senior to the poem – that I seem to be reflecting more on pensions these days. My clients are growing old with me and they are increasingly asking me questions that I thought I had some understanding of when I wrote the article ‘Watch the doughnut’ (Taxation 23 November 2017 page 12); but I have realised over the past year that the answers (if there are answers at all) can be surprising and counter-intuitive.

As I said in that article ‘This is a tricky area...