Is there any way I can get my pension funds NOW?

jh2009

There are only 2 legal methods for accessing the money before age 55.

Assuming that death is eliminated as too drastic, this leaves only 1 possible method; which is transfer to a QROPS and take a loan from the QROPS.

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I might be wrong but i think a condition of transferring to a QROPS is that the pension scheme member has emigrated to the country that holds the QROPS, and has no intention of coming back to the UK. I dont think you can just transfer a pension to a foreign country if you are living in the UK.

Also i think QROPS must give guarantees about types of benefits they provide, and apply to HM Rev and customs to get QROPS Status proving they are a bona fide pension scheme. A Scheme offering a mechanism to simply cash in someones pension to get around uk laws i dont think would get QROPS status and a transfer wouldnt be allowed.

If im totally wrong and this can go ahead then you should also consider the taxation rules of the 3rd country. They may let you cash it in but then may grab a large part of it in tax. Theres also currency considerations that may further devalue any cash sum.

The above though are just my initial thoughts and you may need to look into this further if this was to be considered.

dunstonh

So in 2.5 yrs can I go back and say please pay me or is it 55?

age 55 for you. However, you cant access 100% of it until age 60 and that assumes all your pensions are less than 1% of the lifetime allowance in that year.

farquarpigmix

Hi, Thanks for all your replys.

Farquar