United Future 'delighted' with super group

United Future superannuation spokesman Gordon Copeland today welcomed the Government's decision to set up a working group to foster private savings for retirement. "I am delighted that at long last someone is prepared to grasp the nettle on this issue," he said. "By international standards, private savings for superannuation are poor in New Zealand and successive governments have never seemed to figure out that this is a direct result of poor policy and tax disincentives. "A simple truism applies to public policy in this area: if government wants more of something it should encourage it; if it wants less of something it should discourage it.. "The present system which sees all income derived through superannuation funds taxed at 33% even although the majority of New Zealanders pay tax at 19.5% has been a major discouragement and that anomaly needs to be removed as quickly as possible. "I have been consistently raising this issue with the Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, since I came into Parliament in 2002 and, as far as I am concerned, the Government can't move fast enough because time is against us with the first of the baby boomer generation hitting 65 in 2010 - just six years away."