Do not just leave it to charities and volunteers. Single pensioners, and gay pensioners in particular, often have no children to show them how to use a smart phone or computer.
It is not just a marginal issue. Ofcom’s 2023 Technology Tracker estimates that 7 per cent of UK households did not have internet access at home, while only 83 per cent of pensioners have smartphones, according to Uswitch research.
More digital training for the excluded could even save HMRC money — and more widely the government and the NHS — with less use of paper, post and landlines.
IHT law encourages miserly behaviour
Inheritance tax is a minefield and encourages miserly behaviour. Why not give more generous tax perks to philanthropy from the living not the dead?
Increasing the gifting allowances would also encourage more wealth to cascade down the generations. They are paltry at the moment. A simpler, fairer system is needed, and again, it could bring in more revenue.
As Rachael Griffin, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, rightly says: “The current system’s complexity often leads to confusion and inequities, with wealthier estates better equipped to navigate and minimise tax liabilities.
“Simplifying IHT could involve increasing the nil-rate band, which has remained static for more than a decade, or potentially lowering the headline IHT rate in exchange for eliminating or reducing complex reliefs.
Such reforms could make the system fairer, particularly for middle-income families who increasingly find themselves liable for a tax originally intended for the very wealthy.
Council tax is quaint and old fashioned
Even in more of a mess than IHT, which is certainly not fit for the modern economy, is council tax as it bears no relationship to people’s ability to pay it. Levied on the value of your home with slightly different bands for England (1993 values), Scotland and Wales (2003), the most common is band D.
According to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Band D council tax in the north-east is significantly higher than Greater London.
Online local newspaper LancsLive highlights the inequity of the current system: “Band D charges in Blackpool, where average house prices are £130,000, for 2021-22 will be £1,997, while in Kensington and Chelsea, where average house prices are £2.2mn, the band D bill will be £1,313 (house prices according to Rightmove).”
Blackpool Council leader Lynn Williams said on LancsLive that it “cannot be right that bills for an average band D property in the plush London borough of Kensington and Chelsea are hundreds of pounds lower than in Blackpool, one of the most deprived towns in the country”.
Do not put this in the “too difficult file”. Be brave and tackle it with a new modern system.
