THE expressions bombshell, full frontal assault and revolution may sound like phrases from an action movie, but they are phrases recently used to describe the Government’s new drive to stamp out poor-value pension products.

First, there were the revelations in George Osborne’s Budget, with plans to make it easier for people to cash in their pension pots.

Some of these changes have already been introduced, including how the size of overall pension savings that someone can take as a lump sum has nearly doubled, from £18,000 to £30,000.

The size of a small pension pot someone owns, perhaps because they only worked in a particular job for a few years, has increased five-fold, from £2,000 to £10,000.

Another big pensions shake-up from the Budget is also on the horizon from next April, when over-55s can their pension pot how they want, subject to their marginal rate of income tax, which for most people will be 20 per cent – under the current rules, someone would be charged 55 per cent tax if they wanted to take their whole pension pot.

All these measures are designed to give people more flexibility over the way they take their pension savings, and it’s also more likely to mean fewer people will use their pension pot to buy an annuity when they retire.

Annuities pay a guaranteed yearly income, usually for the rest of your life, but they have been the subject of mounting controversy as rates plunged in recent years.

There have also been concerns that, rather than shopping around to get the best deal when they buy an annuity, people are just sticking with their pension provider.

According to one recent prediction, the size of the annuities market is to shrink to about one quarter of its current size when the new rules come in.

So, what will retirees do with their new-found financial freedom?

Commentators have raised fears some people will under-estimate how long they are going to live for, blowing their savings too early and ending up spending their twilight years in poverty.

Others, more optimistically, have predicted that it could lead to people saving more money into their pension pots, buoyed by the knowledge they will have more control over what happens to their money when they finally retire.

There have also been suggestions that, with the housing market back on the road to recovery, moves to unlock pension pots could create a flurry of older people investing in buy-to-let properties.

Insurers may also bring out some innovative new pension products in order to meet the new flexibility, so watch this space.

There are more changes, too.

Pensions Minister Steve Webb confirmed the Government plans to set a cap on pension charges, to put an end to “rip-off” charges that eat big chunks out of your pot when you’re saving for a pension.

The cap will be set at 0.75 per cent and it will also be imposed from next April.

A few percentage points difference in a pension charges may seem small, but over the years this apparently tiny gap can add up to thousands of pounds for a pension saver.

Millions of people are being placed in workplace pensions, too, amid fears that we are all living for longer but have been failing to save enough for a comfortable old age.

Hopefully, all these pensions “revolutions” will mean people have more faith in saving, both at the stage when they are putting money in and later in life when they are taking it out