Pensioner bonds: a taxpayer-funded bribe for elderly voters

Pensioner bonds are a transfer of wealth from the young – who tend not to vote – to the old, who do. Making voting compulsory would stop this bribery, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

150115-pensioners

Pensioner bonds people who don't vote are giving money to people who do

Today brought the launch of the new pensioner bonds. These are fantastic news for going on 11 million eligible retirees in the UK: £10bn has been set aside for them and the rates are very good indeed.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.