Labour calls for pension reforms review The Labour opposition is calling for a review of radical UK pensions reforms that are due to come into force one month before the 2015 general election. The reforms are the biggest changes to pensions for nearly a century and will give hundreds of thousands of savers new flexibility to cash in their savings, instead of buying a guaranteed income in the form of an annuity. Labour has said that it supports the principle of more freedom of choice but has concerns the reforms may widen opportunities for tax avoidance, as well as heighten the risk of pensioner poverty, especially among poorer people. An amendment to the pensions taxation Bill, lodged by Labour, would force the Chancellor to provide parliament with an analysis of the impact of the reforms on tax receipts and annuity sales, "within six months" of the Act receiving royal assent. The amendments come in the same week a government minister came under pressure from MPs to provide an estimate of tax losses causes by the reforms. David Gauke, financial secretary to the Treasury, told MPs examining the Bill that it was "unlikely" that the loss to the Exchequer would be £2bn, a figure mentioned in parliamentary debate. The pensions industry, which was not consulted on the changes, and has seen a significant fall in annuity sales. The National Association of Pension Funds, said an independent review of the reforms "perhaps in three years, would make good sense." "This would allow time for them to fully bed in and their consequences to be fully assessed," it said. Labour said: "It seems increasingly clear that the government either can't or won't tell us whether these [changes] will result in extra costs for the public purse."