Private pension closing ...

[Iggle Piggle]

Hi Knowledgeable folks
I have a personal pension scheme I signed up for back in 1995.
The fund is not performing as well as a savings account would have done over that time so I want to 'close' the pension fund account, take the money and run.
The company says that due to Government regulations I'm not allowed to do this.
Anybody got any ideas is it is possible and how to go about it ??

[factor-fiction]

If you are under 55 you can't. Pension relief is given on payments in and in return you agree to keep the money for a pension in later life. If it was too easy to dip in too many people would which would leave the state to fund retirement.
You could consider whether it was misselling but that's unlikely to succeed unless you were persuaded to join it instead of your employer's scheme

[factor-fiction]

In the first sentence I meant TAX relief is given on payments in

[Iggle Piggle]

'Plan value' is £5200 giving a forecast of £446 per year pension when it matures.
I am 40 and cannot imagine it will rise to anything significant given the £25 per month paid in...
Can I go down the lines of it's a waste of time / miss sold to due to age or another avenue?
Alternatively, how do I find a pension fund that is a) safe and b) performs ?
ta

[dasherman]

I agree that the fund hasn't done too well over the years but that is probably due to where your money is being invested more than anything else.

It's never going to be worth much if you're only paying in £25 per month, so your options are:
1) Take it seriously and pay more in.
2) Don't bother and hope the state will give you enough to live on when the time comes.
3) Consult an IFA who will point you in the right direction in terms of better investments.

As has already been mentioned, you cannot access any of the pot until you're 55 and unless you were persuaded to take out the personal pension instead of a more generous company scheme, it's highly unlikely you can go done the 'mis-sold' route.

[factor-fiction]

I agree with dasherman. I think unless you pay in at least £250 a month you can't expect much of a pension from any plan. If you are paying in £25 a month that's £300 a year (which I assume is gross so is really less than that) for around 40 years you can't really expect to get more than say £600 a year back for your expected 20 years in retirement.
I don't know how ell the scheme is doing, so you could consider moving it to another one but I doubt you'd find one that would give significantly more.

[trainers]

Basically you cannot access it until you are 55 at this point you can take up to 25% as a lump sum. If you are under 55 you can move it to another scheme or leave it where it is

[ubasses]

When you reach retirement age if the total of all your pensions are below £15,000 you will be able to withdraw them in one go, 25% will be tax free the rest will be taxed.

[dasherman]

When you reach 60 you can indeed take the full amount under 'triviality rules' but the current level is actually £18,000.

[factor-fiction]

Yes the 'triviality rules' will allow him to withdraw all the money in one go eventually (provided he has no significant other pensions which take him past the limit), but as Iggle Piggle is only 44 and wants to take the money now this facility won't be available for another 16 years under present rules

[factor-fiction]

^ when I say 'all the money' I mean all the money net of tax