Take pension or live on savings?

Kniphofia7

I'm 63 in March and want to finish work.  I have a LGPS pension which I pay into and some smaller pensions which I'm not contributing to at the moment.  Is it better to live off savings and delay taking the tax free 25% or take the pensions straightaway?  I'll get the state pension when I'm 67.

Albermarle

Without all details of amounts and expenditure it is difficult to say.
However between stopping work and receiving the state pension, you do not want to waste your personal tax allowance of £12,570. So probably you should take some  and a taxable income of up to £12,570, as you will not pay actually pay any tax on it.
Once the state pension arrives, this will take up most of your personal allowance.
By the way depending on what all these pensions are, it is unlikely it will be that simple as just taking them straightaway. There can be quite a lot of admin involved and some will be more flexible than others. Although I am just guessing without knowing all the details.

billywhizz1966

I would suggest you get your LG forecast. If you meet the 85 year rule (age and service combined) you may find that delaying taking your pension until 67 isn’t cost effective but you need to understand the impact of the actutorial reduction. Without any figures it is hard to advise

Marcon

Kniphofia7 said:

I'm 63 in March and want to finish work.  I have a LGPS pension which I pay into and some smaller pensions which I'm not contributing to at the moment.  Is it better to live off savings and delay taking the tax free 25% or take the pensions straightaway?  I'll get the state pension when I'm 67.

Not nearly enough info eg if all your savings are in ISAs, then drawing from those is tax free - and you'd be wasting your personal tax allowance if you have no taxable income.

Kniphofia7

Thanks for the responses.  I work as a payroll admin dealing with pensions so am well aware of the admin involved.  I've also done numerous estimates.  I think taking the small pensions so using the tax allowance is more sensible.

RogerPensionGuy

Maybe 16.8K out of any odd pension pots between 63 to 66.

60K in pots now will maybe just cover the above. 

Using the 25% tax-free route on the above gets 16.8K net income PA approximately.