Pension Problem

tsmiggy

I have had a few threads with regard to my Aviva Pension. I have now decided to cash it in, but i have been told this is not possible. The pension is worth £14000, and is due to mature in 2024, when i will be 70.It is my intention to finish work in April this year, when i will be aged 65 and 6 months.

I am self employed, so it is a pension i took out many years ago, with the then Friends Provident.If i honest i found it difficult to get a answer that made any sense from Aviva, and they did not seem very forthcoming. Under what circumstances can i not gain access to my pension. Are they correct in saying that i cannot have it, until i am 70. Any pointers would be great.

Thanks

Linton

In most cases........

Aviva are correct in saying that you cannot cash in your Aviva Pension, but possibly only take it as an Annuity. The reason would be that old, no longer active pensions come with procedures, computer software etc that cannot handle options introduced since the pension was set up. The effort to make major changes would not be justified.



What you can do is to transfer the pension to something more modern elsewhere (or possibly even with Aviva) where you can release it as taxed cash. You do this by choosing somewhere to transfer to and ask them to transfer-in. The process is similar to that for transferring ISAs.


There may be something special about your pension that brings in other issues but unless we have detailed knowledge of the Ts&Cs it's impossible to say.

SonOf

but i have been told this is not possible.

Why have they said its not possible? Is it a Section 32 buy out bond, or a hybrid plan or a section 226 RAC (there are other types they cant as well)? (full UFPLS is available on most Aviva plans but not the ones mentioned plus several others).

It may still be possible to do a full withdrawal with those types of pension but you would need to transfer them to a pension that allows full UFPLS first.

xylophone

You might ring TPAS to see whether they can help.

https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/

Malthusian

Are you eligible for trivial commutation? (The first requirement is that all your private pension funds, including any final salary pensions, are no greater than £30,000 in total.)

If you are, you may be able to cash in the pension without needing to transfer to a provider that allows UFPLS or drawdown.

Why do you want to cash it in? You should check that you won't be paying voluntary tax by cashing the lot in at once.