Budget coverage does not always get a particularly impressive audience on Teesside. Sometimes political allegiances can get in the way of enjoying an hour-long statement about national financial challenges.

But Neil Parker, CEO and Founder of Stockton-based Retirement and Financial Planning firm Joslin Rhodes, thinks this one will be different. This is a Budget that will affect more personal financial situations than for many years, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves tries to keep as many people on board as possible while at the same time needing to remove and reshape a framework that we have taken for granted for a long time.

Neil told me: “One of the main challenges the Chancellor has is that she has backed herself into a corner to a large extent. The government had said that they're not going to touch taxes on working people, which was translated as National Insurance, income tax and VAT.

“The problem with that is, two-thirds of the country's revenue comes from these sources. Leaving her with just a third to bridge the gap – and a big portion of that is corporation tax.

“So, with that narrow choice, every Budget brings with it a lot of talk about pensions. Should we tax them more, or maybe cut the lump sum? I understand that it's a very alluring topic for a Chancellor to look at. But the reality of it tends to kick in the closer it gets to 30th October.

READ MORE: Neil Parker, CEO of Joslin Rhodes, talks about retirement planning

“I've been giving financial advice for 25 years, and I've seen a lot of Budgets. They always end up the same way towards the end, when the government realises that the world is against them, whatever they do.

“A good example is the possible cut to the 25 per cent tax-lump sum from your pension.

“For a start, you've got the problem that it’s a bit of an institution in itself. In the British psyche, because we’ve all worked hard and paid our dues, we know that we get a quarter tax-free. So, you mess with that at your peril. Secondly, it applies to pretty much everybody. You're not really targeting it in any particular areas.

“But perhaps the biggest issue of all is that pensions themselves are trusts.  Every pension has its own legal structure. If you want to change the rules, all of those trusts then have to change their rules to meet the new national rules, and that causes 1,001 problems with legal challenges.”

His pin-sharp insight comes from pure experience as every type of pension situation comes through the doors at the Company’s Preston Farm offices every day, which means Neil and his team are continually building on their own high levels of knowledge, as more questions need more answers.

Mrs Reeves would do well to give him a call before the big day just to check she is on the right lines.

“It won’t surprise anyone that the Chancellor will be trying to work out, like all politicians do, how to increase taxes and still get elected next time,” he says.

“We’ve already had a steady stream of people coming to see us and the phone hasn't stopped ringing – all with basically the same question: ‘Do I need to cash my pension in now before she raises the taxes on it’.

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“That question looms large in the lives of the people we are trying to help and guide, and it’s a concern we really want to be able to help them with. What we have to do first though is caution them and say, look, I can only advise you based on the rules as they are now. And if you cash in your pension in order to get it out of the system before any potential changes, you are going to pay a fortune.

“You're going to take it all out in this tax year, which means you'll pay 40 per cent, possibly even 45 per cent, tax on that pension. When, if you took it as a normal pension over many years, you'd only pay 20 per cent or less.

“What they're really asking is ‘what's going to happen?’. I know you would love to believe that I have some exclusive preview of what's going to happen, but I don't. What I do have is the advantage of knowing the technical limitations around what they may or may not be able to do.”

It is the clarity he has about the financial picture the Chancellor will paint which gives him the passion and drive he is known for.

“In many ways, it doesn't really matter what the Chancellor announces anymore,” he tells me.

Neil Parker Chief Exec of Joslin RhodesNeil Parker Chief Exec of Joslin Rhodes (Image: Sarah Caldecott)

“We are trying to stimulate a savings and investment culture across all demographics because we're living beyond our means, both as a country and as individuals, so we know we need to change that narrative.

“The one thing that people are normally relatively comfortable about is pensions. They know they're getting a tax deal on it. It's the incentivisation from the government saying ‘we want you to look after yourself later in life, so we're going to help with that’.

“We've all bought into that for many, many years. We put money in knowing we get a tax relief on the contributions and accept there are taxes on the income when we take it, it evens itself out.

“Even if we put everybody off by a single per cent and for the next ten years, people put one per cent less in their pension because they feel as if the rug is going to get pulled from under their feet, the cost of that is just monumental, and beyond anything that they’re going to gain.

“It just doesn’t feel right to me, my team and many of the families we work with. But it is not us making the decisions on 30th October. We just need to be armed with every scrap of information we have and be ready to react in the best interests of the people of Teesside.

“You can't foresee everything that’s going to happen in a Budget, so I cannot tell you now what to do because it could be option A, B or C. But what I can do is work with you to understand where you want to be as a human being in terms of your life and your lifestyle, for you and your family.

“What do you want it to look like? We can build a Financial Plan with some underlying cash flow models to work out how you can live the life the way you want, based on your current circumstances.”

Neil’s confidence and granular understanding of the system really does make it sound as if he actually has the Chancellor’s notes in front of him, but he is a CEO who has been set a thousand wildly differing cryptic pension puzzles and has found the solutions to them all.

As he says, there are rules and regulations around pensions - and then there are instincts. Joslin Rhodes have an unmatched knowledge of one and plenty of the other.

That’s why, whatever happens on 30th October, they’ll look after you.