Dates for taking UFPLS withdrawals - request date and receipt date

Malchester

Hi. Maybe a strange query but can anyone answer the following. I am to take monthly withdrawals from pension (25% tax free). I request a withdrawal on 30th of Sept and received the funds on 6th October (in 2 separate tax months). But then when I look to request another withdrawal I cannot request it until 6th November (the start of the next tax month) so cannot get funds by 9th of November when needed. So do both request and receipt of funds have to be in same tax month? Can you request a withdrawal in the same month you receive funds from previous withdrawal as long as the funds are not be received until the following tax month? Pension company said it was the request date that counted not when I receive the funds but that is not backed up by their website which says as I received funds on 6 Oct cannot make another request for withdrawal until 6 November.

tacpot12

I don't know who your pension provider is, but when I requested a monthly UFPLS withdrawal from AJ SIPP to be paid on 24th of the month, they take the money out fo the SIPP around 18th of the month and pay it on 24th of the month and repeat each month. I don't haven't have to request anything after my first request there is no is website telling me I can't have it for a certain date. Can't you do the same?

Thrugelmir

Why not setup a standard monthly amount. Would save both you and the pension provider a lot of unneccesary administration. 

Albermarle

tacpot12 said:

I don't know who your pension provider is, but when I requested a monthly UFPLS withdrawal from AJ SIPP to be paid on 24th of the month, they take the money out fo the SIPP around 18th of the month and pay it on 24th of the month and repeat each month. I don't haven't have to request anything after my first request there is no is website telling me I can't have it for a certain date. Can't you do the same?

I thought monthly UFPLS withdrawals were tricky to organise ( as mentioned previously in other threads) ?

Are you in fact in flexi access drawdown but taking each month 25% tax free and 75% taxable ? 

So the end result is the same but the second option seems easier for the platforms to organise  ?

tacpot12

No, it's definitely UFPLS. Monthly UFPLS was easy to arrange with AJ Bell. They have a form that I filled out, and now I just send a secure message if I want to change the total amount withdrawn, they calculate the 25% tax free element and pay that plus a second payment that has had the tax taken from it. Both arrive in my bank account at the same time. The form was called "SIPP form – regular pension lump sums"

dunstonh

I thought monthly UFPLS withdrawals were tricky to organise ( as mentioned previously in other threads) ?

No.  In my experience, it is the most frequent drawdown method we use.  Providers/Platforms will have different names for it but phased frequently comes up with many platforms.

Indeed, you can set all sorts of frequencies with most platforms.

Malchester

tacpot12 said:

I don't know who your pension provider is, but when I requested a monthly UFPLS withdrawal from AJ SIPP to be paid on 24th of the month, they take the money out fo the SIPP around 18th of the month and pay it on 24th of the month and repeat each month. I don't haven't have to request anything after my first request there is no is website telling me I can't have it for a certain date. Can't you do the same?

Thrugelmir said:

Why not setup a standard monthly amount. Would save both you and the pension provider a lot of unneccesary administration. 

Thanks for the replies, Yes setting up a regular monthly withdrawal would be the obvious way to go forward but PensionBee do not and will not allow this. I have asked them about it but, despite being told it was a possibility before I transferred to them, they now say they will not be providing this option to customers. I have to request a withdrawal each month but to be fair it is a simple process that takes only a couple of minutes so not too much of an issue. The real problem is the dates of withdrawal and no-one seems to be able to answer the question -

- does the request for a withdrawal and the receipt of the funds have to be in the same tax month?
- if I receive a withdrawal payment on 6th of the month can I request my next withdrawal on 30th of same month to receive the funds on say, 8th of the next month. I requested a withdrawal on 30 Sept and received funds on 6 Oct (over 2 tax months). Can I request a withdrawal on 1 November to receive funds around 8th November so receipt of the taxable withdrawal would not be in the same month as the previous taxable withdrawal.

dunstonh

Thanks for the replies, Yes setting up a regular monthly withdrawal would be the obvious way to go forward but PensionBee do not and will not allow this. I have asked them about it but, despite being told it was a possibility before I transferred to them, they now say they will not be providing this option to customers. I have to request a withdrawal each month but to be fair it is a simple process that takes only a couple of minutes so not too much of an issue. The real problem is the dates of withdrawal and no-one seems to be able to answer the question -

Never let a provider dicate your retirement planning.   If a provider cannot facilitate an option then move to a provider that does unless that is a particular contractual reason that necessitates a compromise.

- does the request for a withdrawal and the receipt of the funds have to be in the same tax month?

No.   However, again, it could be provider-specific.     The 75% element has to go through payroll.   Most providers will run payroll every working day of the year.   However, smaller providers may run the payroll on more limited frequencies.  In theory, as little as once a month 

The only other limitation that sometimes occurs is that you cannot have two withdrawals going on at the same time with a small number of providers as their software cant handle it.

Malchester

dunstonh said:

Thanks for the replies, Yes setting up a regular monthly withdrawal would be the obvious way to go forward but PensionBee do not and will not allow this. I have asked them about it but, despite being told it was a possibility before I transferred to them, they now say they will not be providing this option to customers. I have to request a withdrawal each month but to be fair it is a simple process that takes only a couple of minutes so not too much of an issue. The real problem is the dates of withdrawal and no-one seems to be able to answer the question -

Never let a provider dicate your retirement planning.   If a provider cannot facilitate an option then move to a provider that does unless that is a particular contractual reason that necessitates a compromise.

- does the request for a withdrawal and the receipt of the funds have to be in the same tax month?

No.   However, again, it could be provider-specific.     The 75% element has to go through payroll.   Most providers will run payroll every working day of the year.   However, smaller providers may run the payroll on more limited frequencies.  In theory, as little as once a month 

The only other limitation that sometimes occurs is that you cannot have two withdrawals going on at the same time with a small number of providers as their software cant handle it.

Thanks dunston, very helpful as always. There is a charge for leaving in 1st year to go elsewhere so am stuck for a while. 

Their payroll runs as and when, there are no set dates so that is not an issue.

I know I cannot have 2 taxable withdrawals in a tax month and that I cannot request another withdrawal while one is being processed.

It seems that the issue is PensionBee's systems which will not allow a withdrawal request in a tax month when withdrawal funds have been received, even when the request cannot be fulfilled until the next tax year. I received funds on 6 October but cannot request another withdrawal until 6 November (not even 5th Nov when funds could not possibly be received until next tax month 

QrizB

Can you ask for 2 or 3 months money at once? Eg. rather than £1000 every month, take £2000 every other month?

Or is that going to cause problems elsewhere?

Malchester

Finally got to bottom of things. PensionBee systems do not allow a withdrawal request in a tax month after a withdrawal has been received, even if the withdrawal would not be received until the following tax month. The only reason is their computer systems cannot cope with it. No chance of them changing their systems which are set up to work for the benefit of the cmpany, not customers! Anyway have come up with a workaround that changes the date the funs are needed by 5 days so it should work out.