Early Pension Release

If you have a personal or company pension you may be able to take advantage of early pension release, which enables you to take your selected benefits before your expected retirement date.

Early pension release is only available for those who are aged 55 (changed from age 50 in April 2010) and over who hold a relevant UK pension. By taking early pension release you may take up to 25% of your pension fund as a tax free cash lump sum, with the residual 75% being either reinvested or used to provide an income such as an annuity.

Early pension release may be taken with either an occupational pension or a personal pension that you hold. However, you cannot take an early pension release with a State Pension or a pension that you have already taken benefits from.

If you have £18,000 or under in total with all your pension funds and are aged 60 or over (there is no longer an upper age limit) then you may be entitled to take the entire pension funds under triviality. Triviality allows you to take the entire sum of your pensions as one lump sum amount.

Note: Releasing your pension benefits early could reduce your income at retirement and therefore is only suitable for a limited number of people and circumstances. The above is based on our understanding of current legislation and tax rules and are subject to change by the government. Tax reliefs referred to are those currently applying. Please note the value of investments can go down in value as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.