I m 41: Will my £150k pension one day hit the £1m Lifetime Allowance? thisismoney.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thisismoney.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
I have triggered the money purchase annual allowance, giving me only a £4,000 tax free pension allowance a year going forward. I have now got a Government job with a defined benefit pension.
I am about to retire and I am keeping my final salary pension as I do not like risk.
But I was just wondering, is it more financially viable to take the 25 per cent lump sum (it would be around £100,000) and just put it in a bank account to gain the tax-free element of this?
Or, would the annual rises if it remains part of a pension eradicate this? I do not really need the lump sum.
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Money dilemma: Should I take 25% from my final salary pension, or leave it and get a bigger income during retirement?
A number of women received phone calls from the Parliamentary Ombudsman, telling them it will not intervene in decisions to only hand them a one-year backpayment.
Steve Webb replies: You raise an important point about the rather unfair way in which different parts of the system treat couples who live together.
There is however a possible way round this (short of getting married) which you may want to consider.
Starting with the benefits system, this has always looked at people as a household, even if they are not legally married.
The argument would be that if you are living ‘as a couple’, then you probably have joint bills which have to be met from your combined income.
If your joint income is lower than your needs as a couple then you could get pension credit, but you are assessed as a household.