Final Salary scheme - Annuity question

treehuggergp

I am 69 and have a final salary pension which I am told I have to take by 70,  even though I am still working full time and earning a good salary. I have recently been sent a quote which is for a joint annuity. I am single, and have been for many years, with no intention of changing that. However, when I asked the provider for a quote for a single annuity I was told that this wasn't possible. Isn't that discriminatory? I was basically told that if I didn't like it I could withdraw the pension and get an another annuity elsewhere. Is this my only option? 
 

Dazed_and_C0nfused

treehuggergp said:

I am 69 and have a final salary pension which I am told I have to take by 70,  even though I am still working full time and earning a good salary. I have recently been sent a quote which is for a joint annuity. I am single, and have been for many years, with no intention of changing that. However, when I asked the provider for a quote for a single annuity I was told that this wasn't possible. Isn't that discriminatory? I was basically told that if I didn't like it I could withdraw the pension and get an another annuity elsewhere. Is this my only option? 
 

If it's a final salary pension where does an annuity come into it?

Also, assuming the schemes normal pension age was earlier than 70 have you actually checked what the position is with regard to the pension you have chosen not to receive?  Is this lost forever?

Marcon

treehuggergp said:

I am 69 and have a final salary pension which I am told I have to take by 70,  even though I am still working full time and earning a good salary. I have recently been sent a quote which is for a joint annuity. I am single, and have been for many years, with no intention of changing that. However, when I asked the provider for a quote for a single annuity I was told that this wasn't possible. Isn't that discriminatory? I was basically told that if I didn't like it I could withdraw the pension and get an another annuity elsewhere. Is this my only option? 
 

No, it's not discriminatory. Those are the rules of the scheme and they are, correctly if annoyingly in your case, being applied correctly.

If the scheme is prepared to give you a CETV (cash equivalent transfer value), ask them to do so and see what cash would be available if you wanted to transfer.

The difficulty of transferring out of a DB scheme is covered any number of times on this board, so maybe have a browse so you can see the likely cost of getting advice which will be mandatory if the CETV is over £30K - cost is at least £5K - and also how limited your options are if the adviser recommends that you stay put.

Silvertabby

Also check that a transfer out is even allowed.  Usually, transfers out from DB schemes have to take place at least 12 months before the scheme normal retirement date (65?)

It's possible that you spoke to a junior administrator, who suggested the transfer out option without checking your date of birth first......

dunstonh

 I have recently been sent a quote which is for a joint annuity. I am single, and have been for many years, with no intention of changing that. However, when I asked the provider for a quote for a single annuity I was told that this wasn't possible. Isn't that discriminatory?

I think there is some confusion here.
Defined benefit schemes do not buy an annuity.   You get a scheme pension.   The scheme pension will include a spouse pension even if there is no spouse.  It costs no more to include it and you wouldn't get any more if you could remove it as its not an annuity.

There is no discrimination.    The clue is in the name of the type of pension.  "Defined benefits".

pterri

It may be that the OP has an AVC in addition to the DB? I’ve got an AVC that I have to decide what to do with when I start my DB. Buy an annuity, transfer it to a SIPP or take it as a lump sum (in my case it tax free and doesn’t affect the DB). You can leave it to grow but have to do something by 70. 

xylophone

I suspect that the OP's pension quote is not for a "joint annuity"  but simply shows his scheme pension and what a  widow would get if

the scheme member predeceased a spouse?

For example, it might show a scheme pension of say £30, 000 a year and a widow's pension of (say) £15,000 a year.