Pension Help

jamesd

So far it's a few isolated cases, not mass action. Just don't count on it staying that way. The reasoning will go "this is withholding income, why should the taxpayers pay just because someone refuses to take their personal pension". Cue outraged looks from whichever politician is announcing the policy initiative.

EdInvestor

jamesd wrote: »

. The reasoning will go "this is witholding income, why shoould the taxpayers pay just because someone refuses to take their personal pension".

Quite right.Surely the reason you can take a PP at 50/55 is to cover this very eventuality - an enforced need to retire early?

Ageism is unfortunately a reality - but you can't really blame the younger generation for getting antsy if oldies demand to sit in the top jobs until they are 65.That's what early retirement/redundancy/pensions at 50/55 are all about.It suits many people very well.

Why should the taxpayer fund people who have access to an income stream? With drawdown, taking the pension early does not mean you will lose out.

exil

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/manuals/hbgm/parts/ptbw_01b.asp#b_w170

Capital assets disregarded in full

1. the value of the right to receive an occupational or personal pension

HB Sch 6 Para 31; CTB Sch 5 Para 31

jamesd

exil, those are the capital rules. You may find the notional income rules less pleasing:

W2.685 If a claimant who is aged 60 or over

• is entitled to money purchase benefits as defined in Section 181 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993, under an occupational pension scheme, or
• has personal pension scheme, or
• is a party to, or a person deriving entitlement to a pension under, a retirement annuity contract, and fails to purchase an annuity with the funds available in that scheme where
  • they defer (in whole or in part) the payment of any income which would have been payable to them by their pension fund holder
  • they fail to take any necessary action to secure that the whole of any income which would be payable to them by their pension fund holder upon their applying for it, is so paid, or
  • income withdrawal is not available to them under that scheme, or
  in the case of a retirement annuity contract, they fail to purchase an annuity with the funds available under that contract

treat the amount of any income foregone as possessed by them, but only from the date on which it could be expected to be acquired were an application for it to be made.