To highlight the sheer scale of this deficit, the current figure can be compared to the budget deficit faced after the last financial crash, which it dwarfs.

The figure for the last crisis led to a decade of austerity and was only under half of the one faced now, at £150billion.

For people who are caught out, they are already taking a big hit and Mr Marker and Ms Dagless said: “Take any excess [excess of the allowance] as a lump sum and HMRC will want 55 percent of it; take it as income, and they’ll gobble up 25 percent”.

There is also the possibility that the lifetime allowance may be cut to help the Government deal with the effects of Covid.

In the past, the option has been available for people past the lifetime allowance threshold to lock theirs in rather than be retrospectively punished.

If this is not the case, however, people may choose to look into other tax-friendly ways to use their money.

In this case, yearly payments of up to the amount they earn or up to £2,880 if they don’t work can be made. In each case, a 20 percent tax relief will apply.

Caution is advised here as people contributing money in this way will have no legal claim to it after it leaves their hands.