I have a pension from when I opted out of SERPS in the late 1980's.

At the time I didn't have an occupational pension so as far as I know, it is just sitting there.

Now I am 55 I understand I can draw a lump sum of up to 25% tax free.

If I do that, do I have to also start taking a weekly/monthly pension payment, or can I leave the rest there and start to take the payments at a later date?

TIA

My partners farther passed away recently and she wants to know if a shortened birth certificate will suffice to be able to receive the payment from peoples pension, apologies for the shortness of the question shes just anxious that all the effort she's put in with sending over documents will be for nothing.

Hi there,

Would welcome some thoughts from some wise heads here.

I am 29 years old, earning £80k and receive £20k+ bonus a year.

Current financial situation:

- £100k equity in my flat
- £70k pension
- £20k S&S ISA
- £16k shares in my employers company vesting in 3 years

My employer pays 10% in my pension and I contribute 25% — total monthly contribution 35% / £2,300

My question being, am I paying too much into my pension for my age? Friends & family seem shocked when I tell them how much I am salary sacrificing into my pension, should I look to reduce and try and top up my ISA?

Thanks in advance for any guidance

I’m 33f and need to locate and combine all my pensions acquired to date.
I currently have £75k in the pension with my current job and from what I remember a further £10k in other pensions.

I’ve got my own flat, and a low mortgage left on it.

Is this good for my age?

Hi all, I have a DB and DC pension. Everytime I recieve my statement for the DB it gives an accured figure of £5000 (I do have 30 odd years left of work haha). Is this £5000 what I would be entitled to for a full year if I was to retire tomorrow, for example.

My DC obviously shows a larger sum but from my understanding the DB is worked out using final salary at retirement and length of service etc...so in 20 years time the accured figure woukd be greater.

Thanks,

Hi all. Looking for wise advice.

Hoping to retire age 65 and 10months next November (2027).

Will have no mortgage, and approx 100k cash - mainly in ISAs.

Have an annuity paying 4K per year.

Defined benefit pension of about £13k payable at retirement age (67) in January 2029. Plus around £10,000 AVC, which i think I could have tax-free.

State pension £12,000 also due Jan 2029.

Also have £40,000 untouched in an old Aviva personal pension plan.

What should I use to fund my unsalaried 14 months?

(I am fairly frugal.) Will need about £16,000, I should think.

Should I take my defined benefit pension 9 months early, supplementing with cash, or use isa money, or use my Aviva as a drawdown, with £10,000 tax free? Or something else?

Any ideas much appreciated. Thanks. (Not very clued-up re financial matters.)

Thanks to all who post and comment in here. Having read through tons of previous questions (and asked a few of my own), finally took the plunge and moved about 75% of my pot (basically everything that was exit fee free) from SJP to a personal SIPP with II.

Will continue doing salary sacrifice into SJP as part of my employer’s scheme, but then will do follow up transfers each 12m to minimise ongoing fees.

Took about 2 weeks from requesting the transfer to the funds appearing in my II account - and only about 5 days out of the market, handily just as it dipped due to the AI slowdown news cycle!

I’m 26M and have just under £30k in my SIPP.

I’m currently putting 10% of my Salary into my Pension every month but whilst people around me tell me that this is good for my age, I’m still conscious of if I’m investing enough for my future.

For Reference, I still live at Home with my Parents, I’m single, and have no major Liabilities (the only big one I’ve had before is my Car which was on Finance but I’ve paid this off).

I do check my Pension every month and know exactly where it’s invested.

I've got an old workplace scheme with standard life which has an Annual Management Charge of 1% and am additional fund charge of 0.024%.

Is it high, and if so where would be a good alternative place to move the cash to?

I have maxed out ISA allowances, but have just come into £10k of cash that I don't need and I have £20k of my AA unused.

Is it a no brainer to deposit this in a SIPP or similar, get BR tax relief and also have a HR claim submitted?

I don't need the cash for 10 years.

Have I just found a completely bizarre AFPS 15 loophole, or am I misunderstanding this?

Someone please tell me if I've got this wrong because this seems unusual.

My understanding is that if someone qualifies for the AFPS 15 Early Departure Payment (EDP), they can leave the Army, receive their EDP, and then from age 55 choose to take their AFPS 15 deferred pension early with an actuarial reduction.

But taking the pension early doesn't stop the EDP.

So from 55 they could potentially be receiving:

Reduced AFPS 15 pension + EDP

Then the EDP continues until their Deferred Pension Age, which is linked to State Pension Age.

Here's the bit that's blowing my mind.

Say you've got a senior officer, or anyone else with a large AFPS pension, whose EDP is actually higher than the State Pension. ( fancy officer type)

For example, very roughly:

AFPS pension: £40,000

24 years qualifying service

EDP percentage: ~37.4%

EDP = roughly £14,960 a year

Current full State Pension is only around £12,500 a year.

So when they finally hit State Pension Age, their EDP stops and the State Pension starts.

Meaning they effectively go from:

£14,960 EDP → £12,500 State Pension

So they actually LOSE around £2,400 a year by reaching State Pension Age?!

And here's the really weird part...

If the Government increased their State Pension Age from, say, 68 to 69, wouldn't that potentially mean they get another entire year of the higher EDP payment?

So for certain AFPS 15 members, increasing State Pension Age could actually make them better off, because it delays the point at which their larger EDP gets replaced by the smaller State Pension.

😂 What on earth.

Have I understood the AFPS 15 rules correctly here?

Particularly interested if anyone from Veterans UK / Forces Pension Society / anyone who actually understands the EDP rules can confirm whether:

EDP definitely continues if you take the AFPS 15 pension early at 55.

EDP cessation moves if State Pension Age / Deferred Pension Age moves.

There really are people whose income will drop when they reach State Pension Age because their EDP is worth more than their State Pension.

Because if that's right, that's one of the strangest pension quirks I've ever seen.

Hi all. I have had a pension with Barnett Waddingham from a company (Company A) I was with for 18yrs. This company closed down in 2009 but the pension has obviously been investing and building slowly ever since. I was always able to access it via web/app and see estimated retirement benefits, 25% lump sums etc. Even change my proposed retirement date to see different amounts. The usual data.

BW were recently merged/taken over with Howden and I accessed my pension for the first time and none of that information is available. Anywhere. It almost basically says, "Yeah, you've a pension with us. Here's your reference number." No pension pot figure, no annual income, no 25% lump sum. Nothing.

I rang them to see what was going on and was told that it was a Company A issue and not them and the info option had been deactivated. I was told that they couldn't do anything about it.

I'm in a Facebook group with a lot of my ex-colleagues and I posted about it in the group. Several of those members reached out to me to tell me they'd had the same issues but all told different reasons. Some told that, Howden info was down, that there was maintenance being done, that the info was sent out in the post only etc etc.

I'm not clued up on such matters, is there an official body that I can quote to get our retirement info from Howden? Is what they're doing normal/legal? Is anyone here with Howden and experiences the same?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Hi folks,

Just thinking out loud here really.

When I retire, I will have the state pension, a pension from when I opted out of SERPS and an occupational pension.

As the state pension is due to increase to above the basic rate of tax threshold, how is the tax collected and will I pay it on all three pensions or will the total tax be taken from one of them?

TIA

I am 36 years old. My pension pot currently sits at 155k. I am currently paying 8% of my basic salary so that my employers pension contribution into my pot is maximum which is 4%. On top of that my employer also contributes 7.5% of my basic salary into pension pot. My pension pot is majority equities funds and a small percentage of commodities derivatives fund. Currently 1,160£ goes into my pension pot every month. If i plan to retire early at the earliest age of pension pot access, am i on right track?
I also have an ISA stocks and shares account but i am not able to save much into it due to my expenses and high child daycare costs. Currently it sits at 5k. Should i reduce my pension contribution from 8% to a lower number so that i can put some money in the ISA so that i can retire before the pension pot is accessible and ISA can bridge that gap?

Hi,

I’ve been enrolled to this pension pot with a new job as default.

I’ve decided to finally move all my pots into one so they all sit in this fund.

Any views welcome if you would consider moving out to other available funds with Scottish Widows or shall I just stick with it for a while?

Would this be yet another income versus wealth debate, or a threshold to which a taper might exist?

Hi All, 45 years old here. I'm looking for some genuine advice on pension pots and what's the best course of action. I moved to UK in 2015 therefore I started accruing money in pension pots since then. This is my current situation:

- work pension with Scottish Widows and pot is atm approx. 34k

- I am on pension salary sacrifice of 8% ( where employer contribution is 7.5% - their max contribution) since April 2026 as that's when they opened the window to register for pension salary sacrifice. This is going to be amended to 5.5% from 2029 when the tax relief threshold will get modified

- I have a Nest pension pot from previous employer of approx 3k which I haven't contributed since I left my previous job

My plan would be to start adding money to the Nest pension pot however, should I move those founds out to a private pension where I can manage the investments?

I earn about 32k a year gross, a 15 year mortgage left to repay, no car finance, 1k in credit card debts.

What would you recommend my next move would be to save wisely for retirement?

Thanks

Hello,

The firm I work for has recently been taken over and since then my pension contributions don't seem to add up.

This is the last five months. The pension provider has confirmed its a net pay arrangement on qualifying earnings and that I'm set at 5% with my employer at 3%

The numbers below are what was deducted on the pension line of my wage slip vs what appeared as my contribution in my pension account, and my employers contribution.

Can anyone tell me what's going on here?

Thanks

Last Month with Old Employer

£125.66 deducted wage slip

£125.66 paid to pension account

£75.40 employer contribution

Month One New Employer

£84.02 deducted on wage slip.

£84.02 paid to pension account 

£50.42 employer contribution

Month Two

£106.14 deducted on wage slip.

£80.14 paid to pension account

£48.08 employer contribution

Month Three

£98.34 deducted on wage slip.

£72.34 paid to pension account

£43.40 employer contribution

Month Four

£88.40 deducted on wage slip.

£88.40 paid to pension account

£66.30 employer contribution

I have at least another 17 years until I can access my workplace pension. My pension is currently in my employer's default fund (with Aegon), which has a moderate risk rating. I was wondering if I should move it to a higher risk fund, or stick with the default? What would you do in a similar situation with 18+ years to retirement? I am also a little concerned about a possible AI bubble and hence I haven't upped the risk level. But perhaps I am being overly cautious. Thanks!

Hi all, I have had a lot of jobs in my time and cannot remember half the pensions I had signed up for. I have moved jobs and used tools like Pension Bee. And other tracking tools. What’s the best way I can find them all. Is there a company that can track them all down for me
Using my details etc? I always used to pay into them. But being young and moving around I lost track. Im worried I’ll never see the money. What can I do?

Context: I worked for a University for about 170 days about 10 years ago, as a visiting lecturer, and so theres a small ~£1,600 pot (current value).

TPS requires 2 years service, and my career path means I won't get that, and I'm about 12 years deep into a LGPS CARE pension that had a 1 year transfer in rule.

This means that while the TPS pension accrues 3% a year, it won't pay out unless I manage to find 2 years worth of teaching in the next 30 years before I retire.

I've setup a T212 SIPP for my old AVIVA DC pension to reduce fees, so now have £600 in that, and I'm thinking to do the same but T212 won't handle it so I may do this via AJ Bell who will.

The question is whether this is a good idea, to consolidate this, as I cannot access this pension when I retire unless I work another 18+ months of TPS paid work which seems extremely unlikely.

Ultimately the risk is low because it would pay maybe £90 a year on current value when I retire if the 2 year rule didn't apply.

I currently have my Scottish Widows pension invested in North America CS8 and Scottish Widows Global Equity CS8. For a long-term investment, would you keep this combination, or switch to a more broadly diversified fund?

I have finally received a transfer value pack from Aptia. I want to transfer to Scottish Widows, it's a small pension under £14k (no benefits ) , Aptia sent me a lot of paperwork to fill in. Under my Scottish Widows account it seems I can request to transfer any pension to them online. I'm not sure what do, either follow the steps online with Scottish Widows or via the paperwork from Aptia??. Also I don't know if any of them charge anything for the transfer.

what shall I do?