Pension questions

ccluedo · 4 October 2020 at 2:33PM

Hi, pensions are most definitely not my forte and I have some things I am unsure of.
I'm female. My State Pension forecast is full pension at age 66.

Every year I get pension info thru the post about a pension I had many years ago. I decided that at the age of 63, I should really try to get some understanding of it so last month asked for an up to date pension quote from the Trustees which I actually sat down and read this time!

In summary:
It is a Defined Benefit pension plan which I joined in 1982 and left in 1993.
Plan pension at date of leaving was £4720 per year. It states it will increase annually tho I'm not what measure is used to determine the increase. Possible CPI.
It states my normal retirement date was in Oct 17 (my 60th)

It offers 3 options:
Regular income c £20k per year for life.
25% tax free lump sum c £100,00 & c £15k per year for life.
Transfer out, which I have no interest in.

My questions:
Being a DB plan, are the above figures guaranteed minimums or could they drop?

Could this type of plan get into serious trouble as I believe some others have over the years?

Given that I am currently in good health - as far as I know anyway- and thankfully have no financial pressures would there be any good reasons not to leave it til until 2022? (end of plan date I think I read somewhere).

I realise the lump sum tax free element is current and not guaranteed to continue but assume the govt would have to give advance notice of any tax changes and not introduce them overnight. Going down that route at all wouldn't exactly be a vote winner......

Would there be any benefit of actually adding to my pension at this late stage given the almost zero savings interest rates I currently "enjoy"? Would this even be allowed? If so, how would I do this as I no longer work?

My state pension forecast says COPE is £46.70 per week. Does that mean that my state pension will be reduced by that amount as it's already included in what I would get from the DB plan?

Thanks in advance for reading and for any replies.