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Pensions Planning: The NUMBER
The NUMBER is how much income you need to "live comfortably" So What's your number? Very important for pensions planning, to know what you are aiming for. My Number? (for a couple) I calculated: £22,000 based on Food £5,000 Car/transport £5,000 Bills/Utilities £4,500 Holidays/Leisure £4,500 Clothing/Cash/Xmas/Other £2,000…
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Success Stories - Pensions
This is a bit of a light topic where the idea is to highlight what successes you had with your pension pots. Example - I contributed X and accumulated Y by Z year. Total appreciation was 'x' percent. Just trying to learn the following that could inspire a range of people - those with no pension, those who started late etc.…
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Acronyms etc..
Hello to all. As a fairly new forum user I would appreciate someone posting a key to the acronyms and arcane terms used when discussing pension issues. Thank you in advance.
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Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning Sticky
Welcome to the new Pensions, Annuities and Retirement Planning sticky! 👋 📖 Here are some Forum threads you may find useful (if there are any you think have been missed, please do let us know): * Can I cash in my pension? * Early-retirement wannabe * It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!! 📝 And here's some…
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Retirement Living Standards
I'm seeing some press reports - in the Independent for example - that the retirement living standards have been updated, but I can't find the new report, it may not be available yet. I know we've collectively disagreed with these standards in the past, but I'd still like to read it. As far as I can make out there have been…
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ROYAL MAIL PENSION QUOTE AT 55 DONT UNDERSTAND
Hi i had my pension quote from royal mail im in section C - my understanding is that theses are the figures if i decide to take my pension at 55 My RMPP pension shows the following Option 1 regular income £1503 pa tax free cash none tax free cash from cash balance none leftover benefits from cash balance none Option 1A…
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DW & P Telephone No. 0800 731 0469
Has anyone ever got the Option 3 'Calling about your state pension' to work? I have been trying for weeks at various times of the day and the line just goes dead after about 40 seconds.
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New Capita-run Civil Service Pension Scheme - problems (what a surprise!)
So, Capita have taken over the admin for the CSPS and their new website and members portal went live this week. I have just registered on the new portal and am not in the least bit surprised to find that the information available on the new portal is very scant and incorrect in terms of my length of service. With…
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Pensions Planning
This discussion was created from comments split from: Pensions Planning: The NUMBER.
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Age 57: ISA bridge or pension top-up for early retirement?
Hi folks, I’m 57 and trying to plan seriously for possible early retirement or semi-retirement. My aim is not to work full-time beyond age 62, and possibly earlier if realistic, partly due to health concerns. I own my home outright with no mortgage and only have a small remaining interest-free debt of around £1,000. I have…
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Drawdown Pensions
I will be moving my pension to a drawdown pension as my concerns are my defined benefit scheme only pays 50% on my death and does not pass to my children if both pass away. Why do I have to pay for a financial advisor to say that I am in a position to move my pension when it is my pension.
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I asked ChatGPT to simplify and sort out my investments
I have been looking at sorting out the isa/pension investments for me and my OH as they are currently across 3 providers (Vanguard - OH, interactive investor (me) and L&G (me) (ex-employer master trust in drawdown). Total approx £1m and not really used for day to day as decent DB in play. My allocation for the last 5 years…
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Bold leap into retirement
Morning all, I hope you have managed to find some time for yourself in what can be a busy period. We have enjoyed spending time with family over the last 3 days, it’s a quiet one today, then off to visit more family tomorrow. I’m not planning anything wild for NYE, but have been really starting to think about what I want…
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Close to LSA and likely higher rate in retirement -- am I overlooking anything?
I'm a USS member. At present the USS benefit modeller suggests that at my planned retirement age in around 7 years time I would be able to take an income of £37k and lump sum of £250k. The modeller gives figures in 2026 terms (subject to a lot of assumptions of course.) What the modeller does not model is the changes to…
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Relationship between pension income, savings interest and capital gain
Hi All, I am trying to discover the impact of a significant capital gain on my pension income and savings interest taxation for planning purposes. I have a personal pension (so I can vary income drawn) and cash in the bank earning £5,500 pa. Historically I have kept my pension income at my personal allowance of £12,570 and…
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Genuine mistake?
Hi, I recently applied to make a withdrawal of £3000 from a drawdown account. Unfortunately, the provider’s confirmation letter was put in my junk folder, so my first knowledge of the transaction was when payment was made, but the payment was incorrect, the provider had transferred the full balance of the account, nearly…
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Definition of when a pension ceases to be 'deferred'
I applied for a CETV (Cash Equivalent Transfer Value) for my Civil Service pension on 8th December 2025. This was for the purposes of obtaining a Financial Order as part of divorce proceedings. I had previously advised Civil Service Pensions, on 12th November 2025, that I wished to start claiming my pension when I reached…
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Rate my SIPP - ITV high conviction
EDITED 04/06/2026 : Please see page 26 for a SIPP holding update since the image below. :) A note about diversification: I know it’s important. I’ve done it all my life. Had plenty of bits and pieces of ETFs like VWRL. But sometimes you have to just go for it. That’s what high conviction means to me. “Diversification may…
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UFPLS Pension taken in March
Hi, I'm thinking of taking my annual UFPLS withdrawal of £16500, in March 2027, and I'm hoping to avoid the P55 Tax reclaim by taking the money after 7th March rather than after April 6th, using nearly my whole years Tax free Allowance. I wont have any other income for the year, as i can subsidise my income until March 27…
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Seeking retroactive higher tax rate refunds through SIPP contributions
Good afternoon, I would like to understand if I can pay into my SIPP in order to reclaim tax I've paid in the higher rate tax bracket over the past few years. I've been with my current employer for 10 years and I currently earn £66k. I've always been enrolled on a workplace pension scheme but have not invested towards my…
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Can this be correct regarding 25% tax free withdrawal?
I have two DC funds and a DB pension I haven't touched. My DB pension was closed to further accrual some years ago. I'm still working. I've made enquiries about taking out my 25% tax LFS. I have been told the following: £1,073,100 x 25% = £268,275. This is known as the Lump Sum Allowance or LSA. This is the maximum…
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National Insurance
Hello... apologies if I've got this in the wrong place. My wife ( 61) just retired early and will be receiving a NHS pension of £17500 per year. She also will be receiving approx £2000 annually as "bank shift" working income. So a total of £19500 I have transferred my marriage allowance to her so anything over £14100 is…
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Government Pensions Dashboard
Early UI for those that are interested. Interestingly it's identified 2 legacy pension schemes that i have no details of…
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Private pension as source of main income for HMRC
Hi All, a quick question regarding my preserved armed forces pension. I receive around £600 a month but am then taxed at 20% due to my state pension using up my allowance. My question is, is it possible to get HMRC to class my RAF pension as my main source of income and make it part of the £12,570 allowance? Therefore,…
Got questions about boosting your state pension by checking your record with the Future Pension Centre and making voluntary National Insurance contributions?
748 discussions
6.5K comments
Most recent: NI years are now full, existing OAP, when should I expect my monthly payments to reflect this? by Dazed_and_C0nfused
22 May at 1:38PM
