what does this mean ?

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•income under a personal pension scheme or retirement annuity scheme.

This appears to relate to tax credits and I included it to illustrate the concept of "notional income" - also it is not wholly clear whether this would apply where the person had reached the age where the pension was actually payable ( rather than the situation where he could apply- take pension early etc). I was thinking of the case where a person has reached the retirement age for his pension scheme so that the income is properly due and payable - see the Age Concern leaflet on page 26.

"Deprivation of income (notional income)
Sometimes you may be treated as having income that you do not actually
have. This is known as notional income. This might happen if you fail to apply
for income you are entitled to, or if you have deliberately got rid of income
with the intention of increasing your benefit entitlement. You should seek
further advice if this rule is applied to you."


There is also the concept of deprivation of capital which is also mentioned in the Age Concern leaflet - I think you might need to take advice on your particular circumstances.

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If you do that, then you will be using the open market option and the provider will need to honour the GMP. You may find some or all may not. It may be that you have to use the immediate vesting pension/transfer method which will lose the GMP but bring you to 25% tax free cash availability.

An example here? http://www.mgmadviser.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/OMO-v-IVP-a-quick-reference-guide.pdf