getting the best for myself anyone in the same boat?

jonsdad

could anyone help me,
my wife and i both had planned to take some money early to help pay off some mortgage,from previous pensions at age 50-but then the govt. changed it to 55-(hopefully they won't change it from 55:(-because we can still get some cash early then as both of these are from companies we are no longer with)
....we are both in a company scheme at the moment...is it possible to transfer my other small pensions into my current company pension with a view to maybe getting at some of it earlier i.e. 55....i have several small pensions which probably will only get me a couple hundred quid a year so if i put them all in the same current one would it free it up?......sorry to be so dense but it's confusing and we're still a tad browned off that we can't get some of OUR pension at 50 and have to wait another 4 years now:(....any help would be very much apppreciated....and i take on board that pensions are for retirement...but help...

jem16

jonsdad wrote: »

we are both in a company scheme at the moment...is it possible to transfer my other small pensions into my current company pension

Perhaps, perhaps not. You would need to ask if the company scheme accepts trasnfers.

with a view to maybe getting at some of it earlier i.e. 55...

What do you mean by earlier? You can access the others at age 55 provided they aren't final salary schemes with a normal retiremwent age of 60.

When does your company scheme allow acccess to the pension?

i have several small pensions which probably will only get me a couple hundred quid a year so if i put them all in the same current one would it free it up?......

Depends on the schemes involved but you haven't given any details of what kind os schemes these all belong to.

dtsazza

First off, I wouldn't get "browned off". The inconvenience of not being able to access your money early is precisely the reason why you get tax (and possibly NI) rebated on the way in, and no CGT on a growing pension. If you look at it that way, you've been paid thousands if not tens of thousands of pounds for the sake of this inconvenience (and one that is the defining feature of a pension).

In any case, you won't be able to access any of the pensions until the statutory minimum age. Transferring small pensions into the company pension may or may not be possible, but I don't see how that would give you access to your money any earlier - if anything it's more likely to delay the point at which you can draw on it. Transferring in funds from another pension won't change the terms and conditions of your existing (company) pension.

You should be able to draw on your smaller pensions at 55, taking 25% as a lump sum immediately. You may be able to do this with the company pension, but you'll have to look at its T&Cs.

jonsdad

both of our old schemes are final salary schemes,royal mail is one of them,the other is schneider group,royal mail have said i can get some money at 55 but not before,when i said before i realise the money is not available until age 55,so i meant at 55.
i wondered if i could put the smaller ones into the current axa firm pension and maybe be able to get a bit more with a bigger fund at said age,rather than have say three pensions of less than 100 pounds per annum(sorry keyboard not working properly)the smaller schemes were one off payments to clerical medical for one grand,and a couple of others...i'm sorry don't know how much detail to go into...the final point regarding what i have got and not got i take on board(but the effect of having to struggle for another 4 years when one should be taking it a bit easier)but ok we pumped everything into these schemes and then are told it is not ours to have....when we got advice i'm sure we were told and had to put down a "preferred retirement age"we put 50 and a lot of quotes have that age on...then it's gone!...i'd rather have paid possibly 1/3 off my mortgage and had some of our money for ourselves...4 years in the present economic climate is a long time and also a short time to put things right....there again the best laid plans...many thanks for the advice

jem16

jonsdad wrote: »

both of our old schemes are final salary schemes,royal mail is one of them,the other is schneider group,royal mail have said i can get some money at 55 but not before,

If normal retirement age is not until 60 or 65, then takin it early at age 55 would not be a good idea. You can lose 45/5%pa by taking a final salary pension early.

i wondered if i could put the smaller ones into the current axa firm pension and maybe be able to get a bit more with a bigger fund at said age,rather than have say three pensions of less than 100 pounds per annum

25% of a bigger sum is exactly the same as 25% of three smaller sums.

when we got advice i'm sure we were told and had to put down a "preferred retirement age"we put 50 and a lot of quotes have that age on...then it's gone!..

The advice was correct for legislation at that time. Nobody can predict what will happen in the future unfortunately.

.i'd rather have paid possibly 1/3 off my mortgage and had some of our money for ourselves...4 years in the present economic climate is a long time and also a short time to put things right....there again the best laid plans...many thanks for the advice

You may have ended up with a poor retirement that way.

kidmugsy

jonsdad wrote: »

....but then the govt. changed it to 55...

Another happy member of the Gordon Brown fan club.

dtsazza

jonsdad wrote: »

when we got advice i'm sure we were told and had to put down a "preferred retirement age"we put 50 and a lot of quotes have that age on...then it's gone!... there again the best laid plans...

Aye, again that's one of the main "features" of pensions. As you get very close you can have a little more confidence that any changes will likely apply past your time, but if you're more than two years away there's a nontrivial risk of statutory reform.

In my case I'm still in my twenties, and every time I talk about being able to access my pension at 55, it's more like at "55" - since I'm convinced that number will rise at some(/several) points in the next thirty years.

The lesson here, which unfortunately comes too late for you perhaps but may still be of use to others, is quite simple. If your plan includes a vulnerability to something completely outside your control, it's important to have a contingency in place to cover that eventuality. (True for just about everything, in fact, not just pensions).

jonsdad

The lesson here, which unfortunately comes too late for you perhaps but may still be of use to others, is quite simple. If your plan includes a vulnerability to something completely outside your control, it's important to have a contingency in place to cover that eventuality. (True for just about everything, in fact, not just pensions).[/QUOTE]....
yes it is obviously impossible to "legislate" for occurences like this,there should be a rule somewhere that when you take out these policies/pensions...the rules you signed at the time under be adhered to!...when someone is trying to sell you something and say "you can take xamount when you're 50 or the whole thing can be geared to this time"....then they should add underlined that this is not definately going to happen,it can change,they probably do now but they didn't when we took them out...we are only talking about a relatively small amount of money,but to ourselves it has been life-changing...but there are people far worse off i know,talk about unscrupulous sales people!!!they don't realise it's peoples livelihoods they are playing with...going off track but here is a nice story concerning one of the biggest firms around,briefly,
my mum had taken a policy out for me which when i got married we decided to cash in early to help move into our first home-the company sent round 2 "agents" with the cheque,and said just sign this and here's your money...i asked what it was and they said it's your new policy if you don't start a new one you can't cash the old one in early!!!...luckily i had some brains then-lol-and threw them out of the house after getting my cheque and giving them a few choice words-and complained to their company....admittedly this was over 20 years ago but just shows you what went on!!!