Receiving pension

johnnicola

Hi to you all and would love some advice please

How long should it take to receive your 25 percent tax free lump sum?

Ive requested the lump sum and pension provider said they are waiting on my ex companies trustees to verify everything?

My old company is Colgate-Palmolive i worked for and Cartwright are the company look after this scheme?

tacpot12

It should take couple of weeks, but if the scheme trustees need to do something, it could be months! There is no set timescale for one-off pension payments to be made in, but pension schemes are expected to do so with reasonable efficiency (The Pensions Regulator expects payments to be made within 30 days once all the checks have been made - so it could be at least 30 days) . You can complain if it takes 'too long'.

It's a lesson to others not to rely on being able to access their lump sums quickly.

dunstonh

How long should it take to receive your 25 percent tax free lump sum?

It can vary with providers. The quickest is about 20 minutes. Many are same day if it's keyed before a certain time in the day.

It can also depend on how much preparation you've done. For example, if you've got the pension already in platform cash and you've got an IFA, that is typically quicker than if you are not using an IFA, and I've done no preparation.

Ive requested the lump sum and pension provider said they are waiting on my ex companies trustees to verify everything?

What is everything? I doubt they verify everything, but there may be specific things they wish to verify. Typically, if schemes are linked, they will need extra info across those schemes. If they are not linked, then they will only need information from you.

My old company is Colgate-Palmolive i worked for and Cartwright are the company look after this scheme?

As it's not a retail pension, you shouldn't expect retail pension standards. You are normally talking in months with occupational pensions. We normally recommend that people start the process with occupational pensions about six months before they need it.

It's also possible that the pension you have doesn't facilitate drawdown. Many occupational pensions do not.

A quick look up suggests that the Colgate-Palmolive plan is hybrid plan with the main scheme a defined benefit pension. It offered AVCs with Aviva and Clerical Medical, and there were a couple of DC schemes for protected rights held within it.

This would suggest that there is no 25% tax-free cash available. Any lump sum will be PCLS and would need to be taken with the income. Drawdown won't be available.

So your question about you saying how long it will take to receive your 25% tax-free lump sum is not correct. The question should be: How long will it take to commence your retirement benefits? That may or may not include a pension commencement lump sum (PCLS) in addition to the income.

Once they have the figures from the linked schemes, they will then issue a benefits pack for you to select the options. With many defined benefit schemes, it is better not to take the PCLS. However, there is no 100% rule on this.

Marcon

Are you sure Cartwright are the administrators? I think you'll find it's Aptia.

johnnicola

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82051508#Comment_82051508

Changed over recently

xylophone

https://www.colgate.com/content/dam/cp-sites-aem/oral-care/oral-care-center/en_gb/general/pdf/colgate-palmolive-sip-chairs-statements-2025.pdf

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073238#Comment_82073238

As you can see from the answers received so far, there is a rarely a simple answer to a pension question. There are many different types of pension and provider.

For example I have a straightforward DC pension with a well known SIPP provider and it took 8 days from application to get some tax free cash.

I also have a DB pension, administered by Mercer ( now Aptia) and it took 6 months, including complaints, appeals to the Trustees etc .

mrklaw

one reason I’m trying to get to a point with enough cash to cover the first year so any faff doesn’t derail me. trouble is most of the cash is also in a pension and I don’t want to touch and trigger MPAA until as late as possible.

DB I’ll definitely try and trigger as far in advance as possible Aptia won’t give me anything other than one illustration per year and never more than 12 months in advance so I’ll need to be careful when I trigger that in my final year

katejo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82073508#Comment_82073508

Whereas my DB pension provider allowed me a quote for September 2025 and another final one for April 2026. I couldn't take the pension until I had resigned from my post but, once done, I got the lump sum about 2 weeks after my leaving date and the 1st pension payment about 10 days later.