Retirement fund, unable to work and means tested benefit

Pegleg16

Does anyone have any experience of what to do about a pension retirement fund when the individual can no longer work? I have a fund (amalgamation of pensions) that has been ticking over in the background since end 2011. Nothing has been paid to it since then. Had to give up work 2014 due to multiple medical conditions and I'm classed as disabled. I'm approaching 55 and need to sought out what to do about the fund. Life now and going forward wasn't what I planned for. Currently I have a balanced targeting governed investment strategy where it assumes I will buy an annuity. I am struggling to work out if the best thing would be to leave it but just change my planned retirement date to the same as my state pension age, or change the fund to targeting flexible access. The problem is I'm on means tested ESA (as well as PIP which is ring-fenced and IIB) and I cannot afford to lose any money from this benefit as its not really enough as it is when you own the home you live in as you have to pay for your own maintenance and repairs. The information out there is so conflicting and both conversations with Pensionwise and Money Advice Service were utterly useless. Everyone's answer is to PAY for advice which is easier said than done if one doesn't have the same personal circumstances.  I don't want to lose any of the fund because I can't add to it due to insufficient income. There must be other people who have encountered this dilemma?

Linton

I suggest you post on the benefits forum if you want to discuss means tested benefits and pension income.  Most people here, including me, dont know much about benefits.

I assume you have a straightforward Personal Pension or SIPP into which you have merged various employers pensions.  If not, please explain further.  Purely on the  pensions side, once you are 55 your can take a DC pension at any time and in any way you want though you may have to change providers to do it.  The retirement date is purely for documentation purposes, it doesnt force you or stop you from doing anything. 

At your current age I assume the risk reduction has yet to kick in.  It may be sensible to simply change to a fund which doesnt reduce risk over time.  However it's impossible to say until you have sorted out what you want to do.  That is the key point.  First work out what you actually want to get from the pension based on what works with your benefits.  Thern it should be straightforward to configure the pension to do it.  

tacpot12

The DWP cannot force you to take any personal pension savings before your Pension Credit Age. After this age, they will assume that you  are taking the benefits, so you might as well take them at that point. 
You don't need to do anything about the fund at the moment, unless there is something  you haven't told us. As per Linton's advice, it may be sensible to change to a fund that doesn't reduce the risk over time if your intention is to drawdown the money through your lifetime. As has been stated, the "retirement age" you have given to your Personal Pension provider is only used to decide when to move your investments into less risky assets. You could give them a new date or you could change the fund (to one that doesn't reduce the risk over time) so that the retirement date become superfluous.