Pension problems

lisa1208

Help! My husband is self employed and has had a private pension for about 20 years. We are currently paying £100 a month and the government put in 20p per pound that we invest. Next year we are moving to France and are really undecided as to what we do with our pension. We coud really do with that extra £100 per month but are we cutting off our nose to spite our face if we cancel and then my husband has no pension in the future.
Can anybody give us advice before I write that letter and cancel it:rolleyes:

davey9998

hi lisa - to help you properly you cant just give bare facts and expect good advice

how old are you
do you have debts
are you moving permanently to france
do you have anything else to retire on
are you likely to get an inheritance in the future


look at it this way, if you have no debts, the house in france paid for cash and the pension is worth £100,000 and you are both 70 and you are receiving a pension of £20,000 per year then it may be worth stopping

but there are other ways/scenarios in which its not worth stoppin!

EdInvestor

First of all you won't be eligible for Govt tax relief contributions after moving abroad ( but perhaps there is a transition period), so check that.There is no point in locking up money in a UK pension if there is no tax relief - you'd be better to put the money in a French savings account.

Secondly have you checked your eligibility for the state pension? Get forecasts here:

www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

You will usually get better value by paying class 2 or 3 NI contributions to maintain your right to full state pensions than investing in a private pension with no company contribution. Min of 30 NI years will be required in future for a full state pension.

But post some info about the existing private pension:

Provider
Current value
Transfer value
Fund(s)it is invested in
Alternative funds available
Annual charges
Any guarantees attached to the pension?
Your ages

If the pension is 20 years old, its performance may be a bit sub-optimal and it could be sensible to move it or switch funds within it. Impoving the pension's performance might quite easily make up for reducing or cancelling the contributions, and certainly for the lack of tax relief.

lisa1208

ok thanks guys I didnt realise you needed more info.
I am 39 but have been a housewife for some years now so ony have a couple of small company pensions from the past.
My husband is 41 and his pension was started when he was about 18. It is with Phoenix who used to be Brittanic. We are currently paying £112.57 a month inc tax reief of 5% and the government contribute 20p per pound.
It is a non-protected pension but with profits. The current vaue is £11300.61 but it says that it will give us a pension of £2,599 at 65
We will live in France from next summer.
We have no other retirement income and may get inheritance later on in life (depending on our parents heath!)
Hope that answers everything. I wasnt sure what info you may need to hep me and I find the whole Pension thing very vague and complicated!
Thankyou for anyone who can give me advice!;)

EdInvestor

lisa1208 wrote: »

I am 39 but have been a housewife for some years now so ony have a couple of small company pensions from the past.

In your case it will be very important to regularise your state pension sitruation and pay voluntary NI if necessary, see above.

My husband is 41 and his pension was started when he was about 18. It is with Phoenix who used to be Brittanic. We are currently paying £112.57 a month inc tax reief of 5% and the government contribute 20p per pound.
It is a non-protected pension but with profits. The current vaue is £11300.61 but it says that it will give us a pension of £2,599 at 65

This pension sounds as though it may contain a valuable guarantee[/quote], so you mustn't do anything to it ( such as cancelling contributions, changing the fund it is invested in) until you have found out all the information about it. It's quite easy to lose these guarantees if you do the wrong thing by accident.

Do you have the original paperwork?

If so, look up what it says about guarantees.
Is the pension index linked?Is a spouse pension included?
Is there a guarantee that the fund value will rise by a certain percentage every year regardess of what the markets do?