UK pension rules get even more complicated!!

Thanks to UK chancellor Alistair Darling, pension rules are getting even more complicated. The government wants to hit "fat cats" but reducing higher rate pension relief to earners of £130,000 a year compared with the previous level of £150,000
will bring in extra revenue of £100m but hit wealth creators.
The Labour government is discriminating in favour of unfunded public sector pensions,
which the country can't afford. These liabilities are going up and up.
For instance, local authorities are already devoting a large size of their fire service budgets to service pensions.
With the uncertainties generated by the fact that the government can change the rules anytime it likes, I am surprised people still contribute to personal pensions.

We are in a right pickle over pensions in the UK.

The poor state of UK public finances apparently dictates a rise in the state pension age from 65 to perhaps 70. Yet at the same time companies can forcibly retire someone
at 65. So what are we going to do with the five year gap?
Contributing to pensions seems unnecessarily expensive and uncertain. Private pensions get hit by charges, which offsets the tax relief, while state pensions get hit by the government moving the goal posts.
We also won't be able to pay the goldplated pensions of council employees, members of parliament etc. The recent volatility of equities has shown that we can't rely on
share performance to pay on all types of pension promises.

I am trying to consolidate two small pensions.

I am trying to consolidate two small pensions into one small one after expenses, charges etc. The charges are quite expensive but I have not got much choice. One of the two will disappear, if I don't take action by August. My financial adviser recoomended a lifestyle one, which moves into cash at the end of the term to provide some protection.
Let's hope it will perform. The financial adviser said the annuity rates were very poor at the moment so it did not make sense to get an annuity and especially at my age. I wish the charges were lower, since they hit investment returns. I suppose that
in many cases gross investment in pensions produces little after charges.

In the UK defined contribution pensions are being crunched.

Research by the firm Aon Consulting has shown that the value of defined contribution pensions has fallen from a total of £550bn in September 2007 to £410bn at the end of January 2008 according to a report by moneymarketing.co.uk.
I think Gordon Brown, UK premier, will have to increase the tax advantages of personal pensions since people will otherwise decide that these investment vehicles are not worth the candle. I am thinking about putting a modest monthly amount in a pension for 15 years and probably the sum and the time period are not sufficient. I will probably invest in a tracker but it could be quite diminished by the charges, which mount up in time.