How we look after your savings

Some major world events can cause market turbulence and as a result may affect the value of your pension savings.

While we understand this turbulence can be worrying, we’ll continue to manage your pension as normal. The People’s Pension structures its investments to manage the risks caused by major events.

We believe the best way to mitigate risk is to invest across the world in a diverse portfolio of assets, and this helps us limit the impact of any single event on our members’ pension savings. As a result, we would hope that only a small proportion of scheme assets would be affected when these events occur. We make sure to review any affected investments.

We’ve made sure to look after our members’ investments through several recent events:

• Rising living costs and inflation
• Ukraine crisis
• Coronavirus pandemic

Pension saving is about the long term

Remember that pension savings are for the long-term and it’s important not to panic about short-term movements up or down.

For younger savers who need investment growth, there’s plenty of time for the markets to right themselves.

And for members in our glidepath who are more likely to be accessing their money in the near future, we take steps to protect their pension savings from unnecessary risks as they get closer to retirement. Please note that a glidepath doesn’t guarantee the value of your pension pot – the value of investments can go down as well as up.

Find out more about investment changes approaching retirement

Planning to access your pension savings soon?

If you’re planning to access your pension savings in the near future, you may wish to take extra care.

Don’t forget, hasty decisions about your pension savings could have a big impact on your future. Because pensions are invested, and can be affected by major changes in the markets – sometimes it might be best to wait before you access your pension savings, especially if you’ve not yet reached your selected retirement age or end of your glidepath. It’s a good idea to focus on your needs in the long term rather than on current events, and to take advice before making decisions.

You can use our retirement planner to work out how much money you may need and could have in retirement. View the retirement planner in your account.

If you’re experiencing financial difficulties, it’s worth exploring any other savings you might have before taking your pension savings and looking at what other sources of support are in place. More information can be found on the MoneyHelper website. MoneyHelper also has a debt advice locator tool to help you find out where you can go to get free debt advice. You can also find out more on our webpage about paying into your pension when times are tough.

Choosing what to do with your pension savings is an important decision, so you may want to seek advice or guidance before you decide.

Pension Wise is a service that can help, so visit their website for more information. We recommend that you get guidance from Pension Wise about your options.

You may also wish to speak to an authorised financial adviser before you choose what to do. If you don’t have a financial adviser, you can find one in your area by visiting the Unbiased website. A financial adviser may charge for any help or advice they give.

Find out more about your guidance and advice options.