Tag: pension pot

How to use the new UK pension rules to make £500….

CASH ICON

Here is the theory….

  1. You pay £8,000 into a defined contribution pension fund
  2. Its topped up by £2,000 (tax back from the government)
  3. So that’s £10,000 in your pension pot
  4. You take out £2,500 (25%) tax free
  5. You then pay 20% tax on £7,500 = £1,500
  6. So £8,000 in + £2,000 credit – £1,500 tax = £8,500 which is £500 more than you paid in

This is based on the HMRC rules.…

You must be at least 60 years of age to take your pension pot as a lump sum.

You may qualify to take all of your pension pot as a lump sum if:

  • one of your pension pots is worth £10,000 or less

If a lump sum is paid instead of a small pension before you started to get that pension, only 75 per cent of the lump sum is taxable.

There will be some charges from your pension provider but these should be small, take look at this list for a comparison

ABI data suggest that 25% of pension pots are less than £10,000

steve@bicknells.net

Budget 2014 – Pensions you can spend, hooray!

Pot of gold coins isolated on white

Thank Mr Osborne, its been a long time coming but an end to being forced to buy an annuity is coming….

From April 2015, pensioners will have the freedom to cash in as much or as little of their pension pot as they want, removing the need to buy an annuity.

We will now have the choice of taking a lumpsum, drawdown over time or buy an annuity.

The news wasn’t good for Life Insurance Companies who saw £4.4m wiped off their value yesterday.

If you do want to buy an annuity you be able to get free independent advice.

There will also be a new NS&I Pensioner Bond savings scheme to be available from January to all people over 65, paying interest rates of 2.8% for one-year bonds and 4% for three-year bonds.

From 27th March 2014 small penion pots can be cashed in, the ABI say that 25% of annuity sales related to pension pots of less that £10,000.

“Savers with pension pots of less than £30,000 can now take this out as cash, in what is a welcome lifeline for savers with small pension pots,” says David Macmillan, managing director at life and pensions provider Aegon UK.

There are still rules and the changes apply to Defined Contribution Schemes not Defined Benefit Schemes but this is a massive change in pension rules.

steve@bicknells.net