Pension rules have, since ‘Pensions Simplification’ a few years ago, become ridiculously complex. Much of the ad hoc, short term stuff added since has had unforeseen effects, such as huge tax bills for doctors having to work extra hours to keep the NHS afloat. They agree to do Saturday clinics, then find HMRC demanding £000s because more is automatically added to their pension entitlement. A quick fix is being applied now, but I doubt anything would have been done so quickly had the NHS not been such a hot election topic; but, hey ho, it’s progress.
“NHS waits force patients to pay for private ops”
Years ago when I worked in Greece, families used to fly their poorly relatives to London to get better medical treatment. Now it’s cheaper, even with the cost of flights and hotels, to go to Lithuania for a hip replacement and Hungary or Turkey for a bit of dental work.