Friends Life to Aviva. Change in minimum pension age? 11 March at 12:41PM in Pensions, annuities & retirement planning 7 replies 295 views

SimonSeys

Hi - I’ve searched but can’t find anything posted on this previously. 

Around 20 years ago, I had a small pension pot with Friends Life.  I last paid into it around 2002, perhaps 2003.  I am fairly sure it had a minimum pension age of 50.

Since then (2012?) Friends has been bought in by Aviva, and the minimum pension age has changed to 57 (my NPA is 67).

I don’t recall ever agreeing to this.  Am I right in thinking that if Friends hadn’t been bought, I could have withdrawn at 50?  Is there any chance I can still do this with the Aviva fund?

(My main pension is a DB scheme, and I was hoping to retire early, then use the DC pot to cover a year or two, allowing me to delay taking the DB scheme for a couple of years)

thanks,
Simon

lisyloo

The law has changed and I’m afraid the government and parliament don’t have to get you to agree.
are you sure it’s 57 in your case? 

It did change from 50-55 a long while ago but it sounds like you’re old enough to be in the 55 and not 57 category.
are you looking at some general literature or specific policy documents?

SimonSeys

Thanks.  I thought pre-2006 schemes were allowed to have a pension age of less than 55?

Linton

A take-over should not change a pension's guaranteed benefits.  Generally taken-over pensions carry on much the same as before but with a different company name on any communications.

What may be happening is that the pension documentation is merely quoting the legal pension age limit at the time.  See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/increasing-normal-minimum-pension-age/increasing-normal-minimum-pension-age where it says:

The NMPA (National Minimum Pension Age) was introduced in 2006 and was increased from age 50 to age 55 in 2010. In 2014, following the consultation on ‘Freedom and Choice in Pensions’, the government announced it would increase the NMPA to age 57 in 2028 to coincide with the rise of state pension age to 67.

What the situation was prior to 2006 I dont know. 

It could be worth double checking with Aviva that there are no early access guarantees, but I think they usually only applied to some DB pension schemes or to people in certain age limited occupations.

lisyloo

SimonSeys said:

Thanks.  I thought pre-2006 schemes were allowed to have a pension age of less than 55?

Are you in a prescribed occupation?

PTM062220 - Member benefits: pensions: protected pension age: personal pensions and RACs - right to take benefits before age 50 - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

"A member may lose their protected pension age if they transfer to another pension scheme."

hugheskevi

All the rules around eligibility to a protected minimum pension age earlier than 55 are set out at this link.
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SimonSeys

Thanks for all the replies (and thank you too for @hugheskevi for your McCloud advice on other threads). 

I’m not in any sort of protected profession. I had naively assumed that a pension scheme from the early 2000s would be subject to the rules from the same time, but what I’m taking from this thread is that the retirement age can be changed retrospectively (or at least between contributions and retirement)

Fingers crossed it doesn’t change again!

Simon

engagedandopen

If you had an Aviva pension on 4th November 2021 you have a guaranteed minimum pension age of 55 (let alone if it was transferred with a guaranteed earlier age from FP).

I don't know of any other pensions that have this - possibly Virgin Money has it, too.