Personal pensions

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1. Overview

Personal pensions are pensions that you arrange yourself. They’re sometimes known as defined contribution or ‘money purchase’ pensions. You’ll usually get a pension that’s based on how much was paid in.

Some employers offer personal pensions as workplace pensions.

The money you pay into a personal pension is put into investments (such as shares) by the pension provider. The money you’ll get from a personal pension usually depends on:

  • how much has been paid in
  • how the fund’s investments have performed - they can go up or down
  • how you decide to take your money

Types of personal pension

There are different types of personal pension. They include:

You should check that your provider is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Pensions Regulator if it’s a stakeholder pension.

Paying into a personal pension

You can either make regular or individual lump sum payments to a pension provider. They will send you annual statements, telling you how much your fund is worth.

You usually get tax relief on money you pay into a pension. Check with your provider that your pension scheme is registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - if it’s not registered, you will not get tax relief.

2. Choosing a personal pension

Citizens Advice has information about choosing a personal pension.

Paying for financial advice

You can find a financial adviser:

3. How you can take your pension

Most personal pensions set an age when you can start taking money from them. It’s not normally before 55. Contact your pension provider if you’re not sure when you can take your pension.

You can usually take up to 25% of the amount built up in any pension as a tax-free lump sum. The most you can take is £268,275.

If you hold a protected allowance, this may increase the amount of tax-free lump sum you can take from your pensions.

You’ll then have 6 months to start taking the remaining 75%, which you’ll usually pay tax on.

The options you have for taking the rest of your pension pot include:

  • taking all or some of it as cash
  • buying a product that gives you a guaranteed income (sometimes known as an ‘annuity’) for life
  • investing it to get a regular, adjustable income (sometimes known as ‘flexi-access drawdown’)

Ask your pension provider which options they offer (they may not offer all of them). If you do not want to take any of their options, you can transfer your pension pot to a different provider.

Taxes and charges

Your pension provider will take off any tax you owe before you get money from your pension pot.

You might have to pay a higher rate of tax if you take large amounts from your pension pot. You could also owe extra tax at the end of the tax year.

Your pension provider might charge you for withdrawing cash from your pension pot - check with them about this.

Get regular payments from an annuity

You might be able to buy an annuity from an insurance company that gives you regular payments for life. You can ask your pension provider to pay for it out of your pension pot.

The amount you get can vary. It depends on how long the insurance company expects you to live and how many years they’ll have to pay you. When they calculate the amount they should take into account:

  • your age and gender
  • the size of your pension pot
  • interest rates
  • your health (sometimes)

There are different kinds of annuities. Some are for a fixed time (for example, payments for 10 years instead of your lifetime) and some continue paying your spouse or partner after you die.

You do not have to buy your annuity from your pension provider.

Invest the money in a drawdown fund

You may be able to ask your pension provider to invest your pension pot in a flexi-access drawdown fund.

From a flexi-access drawdown fund you can:

  • make withdrawals
  • buy a short-term annuity - this will give you regular payments for up to 5 years
  • pay in - but you’ll pay tax on contributions over the money purchase annual allowance

Keeping your capped drawdown fund

If you have a ‘capped drawdown’ fund and want to keep it, your money will stay invested.

You can keep withdrawing and paying in. Your pension provider sets a maximum amount you can take out every year. This limit will be reviewed every 3 years until you turn 75, then every year after that.

Withdraw cash from your pension pot

You may be able to take cash directly from your pension pot. You could:

4. Get help

Contact your pension provider first if you need help with a personal pension.

If they cannot help, you can get free and impartial information from MoneyHelper. MoneyHelper do not provide financial advice.

Financial advice

You can find a financial adviser if you want advice. You’ll usually have to pay for their services.

If you’re over 50

Pension Wise has information about your pension options. If you’re over 50 you can book a free appointment to talk about your options. Pension Wise does not cover the State Pension, ‘final salary’ or ‘career average’ pensions.

State Pension

For help with your State Pension contact the Pension Service.

5. Complaints

If you have a complaint about how your pension scheme is run, talk to your pension provider first. They have to respond within 8 weeks.

You can also contact the Pensions Ombudsman if you’re concerned about how a pension scheme is run.

Complain about marketing

Complain to the company who you bought the pension from, such as the provider or a financial adviser.

If you’re not happy with how they deal with your complaint, contact the Financial Ombudsman’s Service.

If your provider has broken the law

If you think your pension provider has broken the law, you can complain to:

If your provider goes bust

If the pension provider was authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and cannot pay, you might get compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).