What happens to my pension - finished work

scw1

Hi,

I have a stakeholder pension with my work and after 5 years I have finished to become a full time stay at home mum. The pension is with scottish widows. What happens to the pension? I cant afford to pay into it now as I have no income.

Can I cash the money now or do I just leave it there? Sorry never had a pension before and it doesnt say very clearly on the documents I have from them.

LisaW123

I would give them a ring to check. I would imagine it would be frozen but best to speak to Scottish Widows yourself.

dzug1

You leave it there to (you hope) grow and claim it at retirement.

You can't cash it in

scw1

Thanks. Will leave it alone and drop scottish widows an email just to clarify.

atush

And you can (when and if you find the money) put money into it.

Non working people can put in as much as 2880 per year (which is grossed up to 3600 by BRtax).

So, leave it to grow until you can afford to put more in, or when you go back to work.

thenudeone

LisaW123 wrote: »

I would give them a ring to check. I would imagine it would be frozen but best to speak to Scottish Widows yourself.

It's not really Frozen in the normal sense, it's just deferred until the earliest allowable pension age (usually 55).

jayjay2910

your pension is put into a what is called a paid up state where the monies are sat in your penison untill you reach retirement age which is age 55 currently and the provider will continue to take charges which being a stakeholder should be a max of 1.5 annunal management charge untill either you retirer or the fund reaches 0 which ever happens 1st

zygurat789

atush wrote: »

And you can (when and if you find the money) put money into it.

Non working people can put in as much as 2880 per year (which is grossed up to 3600 by BRtax).

So, leave it to grow until you can afford to put more in, or when you go back to work.

This could be a good family investment, 25% growth on day one, maybe providing income which will suffer no tax when you retire.

atush

Indeed, and if she doens' have the money to do it, perhaps her partner will? Many do.

But I would make sure that other savings areas are addressed first- in that you have a min of 6 months in emergency cash between you and your partner (not all in one name) as you never know when emergency will strike.