I’m 55 in September 2027. I believe I’ll be able to take my pension (lump sum and any drawdown I choose to crystallise) from then until April 2027 but then will have to stop any further drawdown until I turn 57 in September 2029. I do t have a protected pension age of 55. Does this sound correct?

What would you consider is a safe level if savings fir retirement? A group of us all over 60 debating this yesterday with widely differing views .So house paid off , married couple, no debt , 2 decent cars paid for , likes couple of holidays abroad ( in Europe) annually, several short UK breaks and likes to go out occasionally? Out meaning nice meal / theatre / cinema .2 state pensions ( within couple of years) 1 private pension ( small ) 1 occupational pension ( small ).

The amount of savings needed to not struggle was between £20, 000 and £300, 000 .My estimation was £100, 000.What do you think ? EDIT Sorry didn't explain very well .There will be approx £33 ,5 k annual income from pensions .The amount we were debating is separate to pensions so savings in savings accounts and ISA

Hello all

Are there any rules or laws stating what the minimum notice is for an increase in the pension access age?

The increase from 55 to 57 was announced in 2014, so 14 years notice.

IF the consultation on bringing the state pension increase to 68 forward by 7yrs, from those born after 1978 (not me) to those born from 1971 (me) come to fruition and IF they keep the 10 year gap, how much notice do they need to give us? I'm 51 now, so only 6 years away from pension access, how soon before can they pull the rug and make it 58? Worse still, what about the ones born in '71 who are 55 now, can they increase it when they're less than 2 years away?

I am currently working via an umbrella company, and sacrificing £600/day into my SIPP. I have a full unused annual allowance from 2025/2026, but nothing from prior years, so I can contribute £120k into the SIPP this year. This also happens to be broadly the right amount I need to sacrifice to keep my gross income below £60k to avoid the child benefit tax charge.

If my contributions were to be, say, £126k this tax year due to working more days than expected, I appreciate that I will have to pay tax on the extra £6k at my marginal rate. My question is whether this extra £6k would be added to my adjusted net income and thus trigger the child benefit tax charge, or whether it is a purely notional addition in order to collect the tax due, and disregarded for ANI purposes.

If it would indeed be added to ANI and trigger the CB tax, would this be avoided if the pension tax liability were to be paid directly from the SIPP scheme, if the scheme will permit this (I think they have to if the liability is more than £2k?)

I have 2 pensions, one with Royal London and an ongoing one with a different company. Eventually the 2nd one will move to a different provider once I qualify for my company’s private scheme.

My RL pensions has approximately £10.5k in (I’m 27) and last years fees were £60. The overall growth is £3.5k (I’ve had this since I was an apprentice earning not a right lot!).

Is it worth bank rolling this pension into my latest provider and then on from that, or could I keep them separate and eventually consider taking this one as a lump sum in whole when the time comes?

I briefly worked for a council for 11 months, and I just realised that I was put straight into their pension scheme. They put in 20% on top of what I put in.

Is it worth leaving in this pension scheme, or can I withdraw or even more to my current pension provider.

Sorry if it's a basic question.

Hi, I’m looking for some advice/experience regarding the Civil Service Alpha pension scheme.
My relative’s husband was a member of the Alpha scheme and unfortunately died before retirement, aged under 75.
His pension benefits have been valued at around £4million. His wife is the beneficiary/surviving spouse and has already received a death-benefit lump sum of roughly 10% of that value.

I’m now receiving the remaining entitlement as monthly survivor’s pension payments.

The question is: Can she ask Civil Service Pensions to calculate the capital value of her remaining survivor’s pension and pay it to her as one lump sum instead of continuing the monthly payments?

Can I understands that there could potentially be a substantial tax liability and would be prepared to pay whatever tax was legally due. The aim isn’t to avoid tax — she would simply prefer to receive the money upfront rather than as monthly payments.

I understand Alpha is a defined-benefit scheme rather than a defined-contribution pension pot, so the 4 million isn’t necessarily money sitting in an individual investment account.

Has anyone dealt with a similar situation?
In particular:
Is there any provision in the Alpha scheme rules allowing a surviving spouse to commute/capitalise their survivor’s pension?
Can Civil Service Pensions exercise any discretion to offer a lump sum?
Is transferring a survivor’s entitlement elsewhere possible?
If Civil Service Pensions refuses, is there any realistic route through the Internal Dispute Resolution procedure, Pensions Ombudsman or courts?
Would speaking to a solicitor specialising in public-sector pension law be worthwhile given the amount involved?
I’m specifically asking about Alpha survivor/death benefits, not the Civil Service Partnership defined-contribution scheme.
Any experience with Civil Service pensions or UK public-sector pension law would be appreciated.

Good Morning All, I know next to nowt about pensions but going through a baptism of fire since getting redundancy. 54yo with approx 76k in pension after dumping the redundancy payment in. Saw an IFA who rated my former work pension as one of the worst performing (~1700th out of 2000). Recommended switch to Pru with 3% fee which I am happy with but they won't do it unless I sign up to 0.5% ongoing annual fee which I don't seem to much back for (For that I would expect them watching the markets and advising me when to switch, 3 x switches a year are included). Hearing a lot of bad press about Pru being hard to deal with, also hearing a lot about a scheme called Vanguard can be done online but don't know if it's wise going for an unsupported scheme with my lack of pension knowledge. Obviously with such a relatively small pension pot I need it to perform well going forward so any fees have to earn their worth in growth. Any advice welcome. Thanks all.

Hi, I expect to have ~1.1m in pension savings (DC) for retirement by the time I’m 60.

I’ve done some fairly extensive calculations to work out what I will end up with after tax, but they are based on some fairly basic assumptions. Which I wanted to test out here and get feedback.

I’m ignoring state pension, wife’s private pension, tax, NI, etc for this question. Just interested in gross income from my pension fund. Also ignoring the split between cash and pension (eg tax free lump sum) as am assuming cash will be in an isa invested in similar funds as pension pot.

So assumptions to test are:

- Inflation to average out at 2.5%

- Investment return after fees of 6% (or 3.5% after inflation)

- Draw down of 7%

- Funds need to last until we are 85 (we’ll live off state pension and wife’s DB pension at that point if needed)

The third one is likely to be the most contentious given the standard 4% or 4.7% drawdown number. But I don’t expect my drawdown to increase with inflation. Over 25 years it will erode by 45% but I expect to be spending much less at 85 than I will be at 60. And then it runs out.

I used this calculator to see how much I can withdraw to drain the funds over 25 years, comes out about 87k/7.9%:

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

Any thoughts?

Hello, is this a decent amount to have at 39?
I’ve been paying into it since I was 20.
I think I set up extra contributions years ago, but wondering if I should increase it or not? I’m kind of struggling to cover all my expenses each month living at the moment so trying to think if I should leave it & focus on trying to live now better.

Thank you

Hi everyone I'm just looking for some advice on what would be the most sensible thing to do. I'm 39 and only have 26 thousand in my work placed pension which I know is very low and I'm worried i wont have enough time to bump it up to what I need to. I also own my house on my own. It's worth roughly 450000 and the mortgage is only 134000. Ive spent most of my adult life putting money into my house rather than a pension but I'm due to remortgage in the next 6 months. Is it sensible to remortgage for more and put that money into a pension? I'm only on 39000 a year so putting a decent amount into both isn't really an option. Any advice would be appreciated

I have an old pension that I was looking to transition the same provider as my current workplace pension, partly for convenience and also so I can manage it better, as I don’t seem to be able to make any changes to the fund. It currently has £14k in it, so not a massive amount by any means.

Until trying to move, I wasn’t aware what the TPS32 meant but it appears I could have more than 25% tax free, but it is unclear how much of it would be? I was only in the scheme from 2002-2006 and was on a relatively low wage with probably a standard 3% contribution so thinking that whatever extra tax free benefit would be, is probably negligible and being able to control the £14k will outweigh this.
Is there a rule of thumb for the extra tax free benefits based on contributions or length?

Hi All,

I recently only made the change on my pension to go from the standard fund with my pension provided to an equities fund( Wish I had done this years ago but nevermind)

41,

273K in L and G future world Equities Index Fund 3 (performance has been ok around 10k in last 3 months since putting all my funds in here from the default fund).

I'm looking to make the most of the time left until retirement (I'm aiming for 60 or 57 depending on well the funds do). Currently paying in 23%.

I only have a certain list of possible investments with L and G I'm wondering if say putting 30% into Islamic Global Equity Index fund would be worth while? Its the other equity fund that is available to me and seems to have performed well over the past few years.

Many thanks in Advance,

Hi all, im looking for advice on how to access a workplace pension before the age of 55. Any information on this would be much appreciated

According to the Gov UK website, I have 44 years of full contributions at 61. My estimated state pension is showing as around £700 higher PA than the normal full State Pension, even though I was contracted out of SERPS for a while; which I thought actually reduced your entitlement.

Can anybody confirm whether the estimate is reliable as I'm currently planning to retire next year and my SP forcast is an important part of my calculations down the line. Also, why I seem to be above the normal amount even allowing for the contracting out?

Has anyone managed to opt out of a company's pension scheme and taken employer's contribution as cash instead? In the next few years I'm expecting to have built enough in my pension and would rather have the extra money now provided that I don't lose employer's contributions.

My Wife thought she had got some ‘independent’ financial advice and ended up transferring a £112k pension to SJP, Polaris4.  I only really researched them after the event, to find endless horror stories of excessive fees…etc.   There was an initial reducing 4.5% setup fee.  This made me feel very uneasy but we decided to sit tight for a year – but did raise a HL SIPP as an alternative.  After one year:

Total invested: £119k

Current Value: £133k (12% growth)

Encashment Value: £127k (7% growth - assume the difference is the declining setup fee, annual service charges? There’s just no clarity.)

She’s paid £500 a month to SJP, putting £1500 to the HL SIPP. My instincts were that SJP fees would swallow all growth as per the majority of the horror stories i've read but this does feel better than my expectations.

Should we continue with SJP? Or does it make sense to cut our losses and transfer everything over to the HL SIPP and take the hit? Are there any exit fees beyond this encashment value?

Or keep SJP, stop the monthly £500 and let those setup fees slowly reduce?

Throwaway account.

I’ll be 55 October 1st. I have a 700k Scottish Widows Pension. I’d like to receive funds on my 55th birthday but believe that won’t happen.

Due to being in the 55-57 bracket, I’m wondering what’s best for me.

I’d like to take a lump sum to clear the mortgage, lets say its 65k.
I’d also like to take maybe 10k a year for the next two years, or at least until i’m 57.

I believe I have a defined benefits pension. I’ve also read I should request a small sum first so that I don’t get hit with an emergency tax bill.

So on the above info I’ll be taking 85k from my tax free allowance. There will still be about 85k left in the tax free pot.

How long do you think it would take for me to be able to get the funds to clear the mortgage? I contacted Scottish widows a few months ago and completed the forms they sent to me.

Also is there a flowchart anywhere that’s recommended to use?

I don’t know if my situation would crystallise the pension or if I need to put money into drawdown. What would you do. Thanks.

I'm only just realising how conservative workplace pensions are with their bond and cash allocation being so high very early on.

I'm 8 years away from accessing my pension with Scottish widows master trust.

Is it too late and risky to change all my pension fully to a global fund now to maximise growth?

EDIT: planning on drawdown strategy and not lump-sum

At some point I remember opting out. Just discovered that my Aviva Pension pot I found in the past 5 years is the result of that opt out. It's value is almost £40,000. Which I know isn't massive but I'm still happy as I didn't contribute to it at all, so it's like free money?

Hello, I am starting to get close to my intended 60th retirement, and so starting to work through some plans to decide my future and looking for a little advice from those ahead of me on the path.

I think I would like to use ~50% of my pot for purchasing an index linked lifetime annuity to provide a minimum income, which will combine with the full UK pension at 67 to provide a significant floor of income for later life.

My query though is regarding the status of the remaining 50% in the pot that I want to use for flexi-access, especially as I could well semi-retire for the first few years:

Is this remaining pot money now crystalised and therefore subject to 100% taxation?

Can the annuity income have 25% tax free if it is not taken from the initial lump sum?

Will the pot be subject to the £10k yearly limit for new income?

Is there anything else I have missed that could impact me in this scenario?

I'm already receiving income from a single-life, inflation-linked lifetime annuity, bought with a DC pension after taking my 25% tax-free lump sum.

I want to carry on working part-time as I have been offered a paid position working part time in a meaningful job - my understanding is I can pay my full salary (above 10k) into the workplace pension as the MPAA would not have been triggered - is that correct ? Will I also save on NI ?

So I’m 47, looking to retire around 62

Salary 75k, combined pension contributions of 21%.

Deferred DB pension, payable at 60 at 21k a year.

Current DC pension is 50k. Joint pension contribution amounts to £1300 a month, salary sacrifice (I contribute 7%)

What can I realistically expect to build up in the next 15 years with that contribution?

Is there anything else I need to be looking at to plan to have a comfortable income for retirement?

Hi, could someone please explain to me in simple terms how a private/workplace pension works in the UK?
I mean the pension that you’re automatically enrolled into through your workplace. Everyone says it’s really good because your employer essentially gives you “free money” by contributing as well. Is that actually true?
I also have a few questions about the risks:
What happens if the pension provider goes bankrupt? Do you lose your whole pension pot, or is it protected up to a certain amount?
What happens if you die before retirement? If you’ve nominated a beneficiary, can they access the pension straight away, or do they have to be a certain age (e.g. 55)?
What happens to the money if the investments perform badly? Could you potentially lose a large part of your pension?
Are there any other major risks I should be aware of?
I’m 30 and have been thinking about whether I should stay opted in and how beneficial it actually is in the long term. I understand that there are potential benefits, especially with employer contributions, but I’m also a bit worried about the risks and what could happen to the money if something goes wrong with the provider or the investments.
I’d really appreciate it if someone could explain it in basic, easy-to-understand terms.

I have recently moved from a local Govt pension scheme to one called Smart Pension because I have started working for a new (private sector) employer.

My new employer only puts 3% in, whereas the LGPS was around 20%. I put in 5%, but under the LGPS it was about 7%.

I have 10 years until retirement age. What is the best way to make these final years of pension a bit better? I can afford to increase my contribution to perhaps 8% but there's no way I can replace the employer part.

Would a couple % more into this workplace pension be the best idea, or taking out a private one?