Whilst the vast majority of the pension changes that were announced in the budget were extremely welcome, within the detail there is a proposal to link the normal minimum personal pension retirement age to the state retirement age.
What this means currently is that people retiring after 2028 may not be able to take their personal pension until age 57 instead of the current age of 55.
You might say: "Not a big deal, I don't think I will be able to retire until 65 anyway!". However if the minimum age you can take your personal pension is set at 10 years below the state pension age then we may have a problem further down the line.
The timeline to move the state retirement age to 68 is already set and most commentators believe the move to age 70 will be announced in the near future. I also believe that unless the Government can find money to fund state pension payments from somewhere else then the state pension age could easily be moved to age 80 (albeit likely only to affect the younger generations). If this happened these proposals could see younger generations lose access to their personal pensions until age 70!
Although detail on the minimum pension age proposals have not been announced I would reiterate the general philosophy of diversification in relation to retirement planning. With the very positive changes to the ISA regime including the higher £15,000 subscription limit and the removal of the distinction between cash and investment ISA subscriptions, Individual Savings Accounts have become an ideal supplement to pensions for meeting the majority of people's retirement goals.