Yesterday's Scottish Budget was bad news for high earners north of the border but created an opportunity for workers to get a far bigger boost to their pensions than their English counterparts.

The growing gulf between the tax systems could mean a Scottish worker retires with a pension as much as 30pc higher than someone with the same salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, according to analysis for Telegraph Money by Aegon, the pension firm.

Scotland's devolved government has had the power to set its own income tax rates since 1999, but has only diverged from rates used in the rest of the UK since April 2018. It introduced two new rates, at 19p and 21p in the pound, and added a penny to the higher and top-rates of tax.

In all there are five income tax brackets in Scotland: at 19pc, 20pc, 21pc, 41pc and 46pc. In the rest of the UK there are three: 20pc, 40pc and 45pc.

Those changes meant that for the current tax year, high earners pay more tax in Scotland. But because of how the pension tax system operates, the same people will be able to claim larger sums in tax relief on pension contributions.

And, if the measures announced in the Budget are approved, the gap between English and Scottish taxpayers will grow even larger next year.