Pension Changes - April 2015

[Hymie]

Further to this recent thread on pension changes coming into effect in April this year – there was an interesting article on Radio 4s Money Box today.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Business-and-Finance/Personal-Finance/Question1396758.html

If you want, you can go to the BBC website and listen to the programme – the gist of which is that most likely, the current contract you have with whoever you are paying your pension contributions to, is to allow you to take a 25% tax free lump sum and buy an annuity with the remainder.

They are under no obligation to allow you to have access to your pension pot – as outlined by the government’s rule changes (coming into effect on April 6).
Only way to circumvent this is to transfer your pension pot to a provider that will allow such withdraws – however there will be a significant fee, possibly 10% or more (of your pension pot) to do this.

So unless the government legislates to force these shysters to give you your money – they will continue to hold on to your money for as long as possible.

[Old_Geezer]

Thought it was well known there was no obligation, government merely expressed their wish. One would hope many would comply though. Thing is to check with your future pension provider. Personally I think we are all at the mercy of these institutions anyway. No tax breaks if you save for old age using your own investment decisions.