Can small monthly pension be commuted to cash sum?

pastmybest

My wife is 61 and has one small pension of £30 per month and when it started she took the maximum cash sum which was a couple of thousand pounds. Could this small monthly pension be turned into a another cash sum at this stage?

bendix

No.

It.

Can't.

Cautious_Investor_3

Hi

No, unfortunately not.

There is a triviality rule but this only applies at the time of taking a pension, not afterwards.

Sorry, this is probably not the answer you wanted!

The Cautious Investor

hugheskevi

Just looking over HMRC technical guidance about Trivial Commutation here

What benefits may be commuted on the grounds of triviality?

Both uncrystallised rights and pensions in payment may be commuted this way. However, the same conditions must be met in each case.

Where crystallised rights are paid as a trivial commutation lump sum the whole payment will be taxed as pension income. Where uncrystallised rights are commuted, only part of the payment will be taxed as pension income – see RPSM09105080.

I thought that if the scheme permitted, Trivial Commutation of pension in payment was possible? Is this not the case?

yelf

crystallised rights doesnt mean that an annuity can be converted (which im assuming is being talked about)

dunstonh

Its technically possible to active triviality on a pension in payment although you dont find many that will actually allow it. You can only ask but be prepared that they will probably say no but they may say yes.

trina2010

I work within annuity servicing for one of the big companies and certainly once we set up and outside the 30 day cooling off period annuities cannot be swapped for cash, they are virtually set in stone.

McKneff

It amazes me how many threads are started per week by people who think that pension pots are like savings accounts and you
can take money out at will.

Makes me wonder if they have actually read any of the paperwork before signing up to a what you might call a lifetime committment for someone to take money from you and not realise that once its gone it doesnt belong to you anymore'

dunstonh

Makes me wonder if they have actually read any of the paperwork before signing up to a what you might call a lifetime committment for someone to take money from you and not realise that once its gone it doesnt belong to you anymore'

I have being doing this for a long time now. Its not uncommon for people to come back and say why does it do this or why that and you remind them what you told them and they say "oh yes, I remember now". I was told in my younger days that people will forget around 70% of what you say. If its not a subject they are really interested in then it could even be more than that.

molerat

The OP's question was not the usual "can I cash my pension in" but "can I commute a pension already in payment under triviality". The correct answer seems to be possibly but unlikely.