Accessing my pension

Pedro55

Hello there!

Can anybody give me any advice on accessing my pension? I'm 48 years old (49 This year). I've been told that I can't access my pension untill I'm 55. However I read in a post that I could access it in some circumstances, ill health being one of them. Three years ago I was diagnosed with throat cancer and, to cut a long story short, I had to have my vocal chords removed. I am now trying to live on incapacity benefit/DLA. I was also made redundant after 30 years in the same job!! (This was not related t my illness).

I haven't dug out my pension paper work as yet or contacted the pension company. Thought I'd seek some independant advice from here first!!!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Cheers.

Pedro.

Lokolo

When we say ill health, it usually means terminal.

Pedro55

Not Terminal. Not sure if that's made me feel better or worse!!!! He, He!!!

Unclepetey

You should contact the trustees of the your pension scheme - assuming it was a work pension scheme.

As you are what is known as a deferred member it is unlikely that you will be able to qualify for an ill-health early retirement pension (which certainly can be paid earlier than 55). But you need to contact the scheme to establish this.

As the other poster said, if you can't qualify for an ill-health early retirement pension you will only be able to access your pension if you have life expectancy of less than a year (in which case you should be able to receive all of your benefits as a one-off lump sum).

Hope this helps and sorry to hear about your illness.