41 and want to take my contribution to personal pension

Shady01

Hi, I can't find this anywhere so I'm posting it here seeking help. I have a personal pension it was taken over by Aviva can't remember who it was opened by. My employer and myself paid into it, I got made redundant about 3 years ago, the pension is now closed as I couldn't afford to pay in what I was when working (think it was about £8 a week) so my question is as follows; I am 41 is it possible for me to remove all what I paid in in a lump sum?

worried_jim

Shady01 wrote: »

Hi, I can't find this anywhere so I'm posting it here seeking help. I have a personal pension it was taken over by Aviva can't remember who it was opened by. My employer and myself paid into it, I got made redundant about 3 years ago, the pension is now closed as I couldn't afford to pay in what I was when working (think it was about £8 a week) so my question is as follows; I am 41 is it possible for me to remove all what I paid in in a lump sum?

Generally no, unless you have a terminal disease and only six months to live. You can access your pension from age 55 years onwards, anything before this is dodgy and you risk losing all your money and having to pay tax for the privilege of doing so.

OldMusicGuy

It will be in your documentation, so read that. If this is a defined contribution scheme, you have to be over 55. The only circumstances where it might be possible are if you are seriously ill, see here: https://www.gov.uk/early-retirement-pension/personal-and-workplace-pensions.

Be wary of any person or company that says they can get access to it for you. You could pay 55% tax on that if you do it. But maybe you are happy paying 55% tax?

dunstonh

o my question is as follows; I am 41 is it possible for me to remove all what I paid in in a lump sum?

No. As its a pension, that means you can only access it during the retirement age range of 55 onwards.

Marcon

Shady01 wrote: »

I am 41 is it possible for me to remove all what I paid in in a lump sum?

Yes. If you can find someone to whom you can transfer and then do that, it will be classed as an unauthorised payment because it is made before the age of 55. You are, I hope, not terminally ill with supporting medical evidence that your life expectancy is no more than 12 months (not 6 months as suggested above).

You will suffer a huge tax charge (55%) and the outfit helpfully 'liberating' your pension will have fees which will probably eat up at least half of the pot.

You will be left paying out more in taxes and charges than you currently have in your pension savings, so probably not a good idea.

Nasqueron

Probably worth speaking to a pensions advisor about getting the money into a lower rate plan that you can contribute to, even a small sum with tax additions is worth doing for the future

Shady01

Thanks everyone for your help I think I will just leave it then, thanks again.