Small pension fund

Philosophical

Can anyone help? I am about to turn 60 and have a stakeholder pension fund worth £11000, some personal pension plans amounting to about £6000 and an NHS deferred pension of 5 years that I have to take as a lump sum of £2800 and a small annual amount. I want to take the cash out of the PP but have been told that the combined amounts with the NHS will take me over the maximum £18000 allowed. Is this true? Does the NHS bit count and can they stop me? If it's true I could take 25% and would have to buy an annuity with the rest giving me a paltry annual sum. I could use the lot to buy an annuity and have a slightly larger paltry sum. I don't feel inclined to leave it in there for longer. Any suggestions would be appreciated?

jem16

Philosophical wrote: »

Is this true?

Yes it is true

Does the NHS bit count and can they stop me?

Triviality ( which is what you are trying to do) includes all pension schemes added together so yes the NHS bit does count and yes they can stop you as that's the law.

If it's true I could take 25% and would have to buy an annuity with the rest giving me a paltry annual sum. I could use the lot to buy an annuity and have a slightly larger paltry sum. I don't feel inclined to leave it in there for longer. Any suggestions would be appreciated?

There is nothing stopping you putting the stakeholder and PP together and taking one annuity if this is better than 2 separate annuities. It might not be though.

atush

you can take 25% of both your stakeholder and PPs and put the rest of the money together and buy one annuity, buy several, or use income drawdown and buy No annuity.

kidmugsy

"some personal pension plans amounting to about £6000": why not wait until next tax year and cash in up to two that are each worth less than £2k? See earlier posts for details.