Chancellor Rachel Reeves is gunning for our pensions on a number of fronts.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is after your pension – but only private ones (Image: Getty)

Of course she is. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a Labour Chancellor in want of cash will come for your pension.

Gordon Brown set the precedent in 1997, launching a £200billion stealth raid within weeks of taking office.

That move killed off the UK’s final salary pension schemes, once common in the private sector.

Now Labour is at it again. But in 2025, one front isn’t enough. Reeves is targeting pensions from several directions.

Yet there’s one exception. As always, public sector pensions are off-limits.

That’s despite the fact that public sector pension liabilities stand at an eye-watering £2.64 trillion, almost 100% of UK GDP. They’re also unfunded, paid from future taxpayer revenues.

But to Labour, they’re sacrosanct. The rest are seen as fair game.

Reeves is doubling down on Brown’s legacy by squeezing private sector pensions and millions will face a tougher retirement as a result.

In her Budget, Reeves announced plans to impose inheritance tax (IHT) on unused “defined contribution” pensions from 2027.

These are the pensions most private sector workers rely on, where contributions are invested in the stock market.

They’re hugely inferior to public sector “defined benefit” final salary pensions, but that won’t stop her.

Under her plan, unused pension above the £325,000 IHT nil-rate band would be taxed at 40% on death.

If the policyholder dies after 75, beneficiaries will also pay income tax on any withdrawals too. I’ve labelled this a double death tax that could swallow more than two thirds of an inherited pot.

Yesterday we learned that Reeves is also sizing up “salary sacrifice” schemes, a tax-efficient way to boost pension contributions.

They’re widely used in the private sector, but unavailable in the public sector. Which makes it fair game for Labour.

Reeves is also pushing private sector pension companies to invest members’ money in UK projects like housing and infrastructure and renewable energy, at the risk of reducing returns and retirement pots.

Her multi-pronged assault on our pensions still isn’t enough for the wider Labour Party.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner is bullying Reeves into restoring the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA), which hits savers with up to 55% tax on any pension above a fixed level.

So why hasn’t Labour revived it? Only because it would hit NHS doctors and other top public sector workers. Otherwise, they’d have done it from day one.

Reeves is also rumoured to be mulling changes to tax relief on pension contributions. Higher earners currently get relief at 40% or 45%, but many on the left want this cut to a flat rate of 20% or 25% for all.

Tax relief costs the Treasury around £50billion a year, making it a juicy target for savings.

So far, Reeves hasn’t gone down that road. Maybe that’s because higher earning public sector workers will also take a hit. It would fit the pattern.

I’m not calling for a raid on public sector pensions. But if Reeves is determined to squeeze the private sector, the least she could do is be consistent.

Especially when private pensions are vastly inferior in the first place. Thanks to Labour.