Can I cash in my pension?

atush

Madness.

Get a building loan. that is what I did when i built a house. Better than losing over 10K of your pension to get less than 9K.

buckswizz

Hello,

Sorry for looking a bit dim.....received in the post today a letter from Standard Life saying they have traced me through the dwp re a pension I paid into for about 8 months back in 2008 - the company went bust about a year later.

To cut a long story short, I logged in with the details provided and found this stakeholder pension has a value of about £2.5K my question is that, as I am 56 (nearly 57) can I cash this (trivial??) amount in? because I have a final salary pension from a previous employer which I intend not to touch. But this £2.5k would come in useful right now.

thanks in advance for any replies

gadgetmind

buckswizz wrote: »

can I cash this (trivial??) amount in?

Your FS pension means that you probably couldn't do this under the triviality rules, and you're not old enough yet (need to be 60) to use either triviality rules or small pots rules.

However, assuming the proposed "flexible for all" comes in next April, then you'll be able to take 25% of that pension tax free with the rest taxed at your marginal rate.

I don't know if Standard Life will be set up to allow this, but others might.

buckswizz

many thanks for the reply !

whitey012001

atush wrote: »

Madness.

Get a building loan. that is what I did when i built a house. Better than losing over 10K of your pension to get less than 9K.

Have gone down this route but will only lend so much. Just wanted to know if it was possible, didn't need the judgemental comments.

whitey012001

dunstonh wrote: »

You are willing to give up over half the pension value to break the tax laws as well as using a scam company to do this (as no genuine company would)?

Scottish Widows said if I cashed it in I would be liable to tax on it, so it was them who put the thought in my head. Like I've just said. Is just wanted to know if it was possible. It's not as if I am being reckless I have other pensions and will have several properties by the end of this. HMRC even mention about being liable for tax if you access you pension before 55. I was just wondering how you go about it and if it was possible.

atush

whitey012001 wrote: »

Have gone down this route but will only lend so much. Just wanted to know if it was possible, didn't need the judgemental comments.

That was NOT judgemental.

It is Madness to take something worth 20K and turn it into something less than 9K just to get your hands on some cash. Like going to a pawnshop.

You need to look elsewhere for funding, or dont proceed with the plan until you have the money.

whitey012001

atush wrote: »

That was NOT judgemental.

It is Madness to take something worth 20K and turn it into something less than 9K just to get your hands on some cash. Like going to a pawnshop.

You need to look elsewhere for funding, or dont proceed with the plan until you have the money.

My pension, my decision. Thanks for your opinions, noted and ignored.

Thought I might get a simple answer instead of lectures. I'm un subscribing from this thread, and will look elsewhere!

WhatRecovery

Dont go whitey! that was really interesting for me too! (pls be nice to newbies/lurkers everyone

WhatRecovery

gadgetmind wrote: »

Your FS pension means that you probably couldn't do this under the triviality rules, and you're not old enough yet (need to be 60) to use either triviality rules or small pots rules.

However, assuming the proposed "flexible for all" comes in next April, then you'll be able to take 25% of that pension tax free with the rest taxed at your marginal rate.

I don't know if Standard Life will be set up to allow this, but others might.

'at your marginal rate' sounds interesting but could you explain a bit more?