How to take your pension money
Logging in to your Online Account is the most convenient way to access your money with The People’s Pension.
Are you ready to take your money?
Important: how you take your pension money is a big decision and you need to think about it very carefully! But if you’ve already considered your options and decided how you want to take your pension savings, you can request this quickly in your Online Account.
Taking your money through your Online Account:
only takes 15 minutes to complete the online requestis a safe and secure transactionmeans you’ll receive your money faster than by post
When you’re ready, log in to your Online Account and go to ‘Take your money’
Not ready to start yet?
Set yourself a reminder to come back to this page when you’re ready.
Having problems in your Online Account?
Read our FAQs for help with taking your money online.
Do you need to do some more research?
Find out about your options
Your pension pot doesn’t automatically turn into a regular income or get sent to you as a lump sum.
You need to tell us how you want to take your money – and there’s a few different ways to choose from.
Watching our video about your retirement options and reading our ‘Your options at retirement’ booklet is a good way to get started.
What are your options for taking your pension money?
You have more options if you have more than £10,000 in your pot. So, if you have £10,000 or less saved with us, you might want to think about combining your pensions. By transferring savings from other schemes into your account with The People’s Pension you could increase your options.
Keep your money where it is
If you don’t need to access your pension pot, you can leave it where it is. This means you can continue to save and your pension pot may grow. But, as with all investments, there’s a risk that the value can go down as well as up.
Take your money all in one go
There are different ways of doing this depending on the amount.
Option A: take a pot of £10k or less all in one go (also called a ‘small pot lump sum’).
Option B: take a pot of more than £10k all in one go (also called a ‘whole-pot UFPLS’).
Take your money a bit at a time
If you’ve got more than £10,000 in your pension pot, or £2,000 if you’ve taken money before.
Option A: take your tax-free cash up front a bit at a time or all in one go (also called ‘flexi-access drawdown’ or ‘designation to FAD’).
Option B: spread your tax-free cash across all withdrawals (also called a ‘partial UFPLS’).
Buy a guaranteed income
We don’t offer a guaranteed income product (also called ‘annuity’) but you could transfer your pension to an annuity provider. The amount you’re offered will depend on the type of income you choose.
Find out how much you have
How you can take your pension pot depends on how much you have saved. Check in your Online Account to see how much your pension pot is worth – you’ll need to set it up first if you haven’t done so before. Log in to your Online Account Set up your Online AccountCompare your options at retirement
Retirement planning = big decisions.
There are lots of different factors that could affect your decision about how to take your pension savings.
Have a look at our comparison page to help you decide what’s right for you.
You can also find out more by reading our frequently asked questions on accessing your pension money.
Combining your pension savings
You have different options for taking your money depending on how much you have in your pension pot. So by combining your pension savings into one place, you could increase your options. More about combining your pensions
Retirement scenarios
Deciding how to take your pension savings is a personal decision – we can’t tell you what’s right for you personally. But you can get an idea of how different people take their savings in different ways, by reading our quick case studies…
Meet Karishma…
Karishma wants to take some money now and continue working
Karishma has paid into her pension throughout her career and wants to take some of her pension savings now to pay off her credit card. She isn’t planning on retiring just yet, so she wants to continue working and paying into her pension.
As she has more than £10k in her pension pot , she’s decided to take some of her tax-free cash now and leave the rest invested, as she doesn’t need it all right away. With this option, she can continue to build her pension pot just as she is now, meaning her employer will still be able to pay in and she’ll keep on receiving tax relief from the government on what she contributes too. And because she’s left some of her tax-free cash and the rest of her savings invested – giving them more time to grow – she could get even more tax-free cash later on in life.
Meet James…
James is retiring a year earlier than planned due to a health scare
James worked in the City and has saved into his pension since he was 20, building up a reasonable pension pot. Because of his health scare he’s decided to retire now to spend more time with family and friends.
He has savings but no other income so plans on using his pension savings until he gets the State Pension.
He’s chosen to spread his tax-free cash across all withdrawals. 25% of each withdrawal taken will be tax-free, and he may pay tax on the rest of what he takes out, just as he would if he was still earning. If he keeps the taxable amount withdrawn below the personal allowance for tax each year, then he may not pay tax at all on his withdrawals.
Taking money in this way will limit how much he can pay into a pension and receive tax relief on in future.
Meet Niki…
Niki is considering combining her pension pots to make them easier to manage
Niki loves to shop and would like to continue her current lifestyle once she retires. She has a few hundred pounds in her pension pot with us. She could take it all in one go but it wouldn’t last her very long. She’s worked for 5 different employers in her career, so she’s ended up with another 4 pension pots with other providers as well.
To make it easier for her to manage her pension savings, she’s going to transfer her old pots into The People’s Pension. This will open up more options on how she can take her pension savings when she retires, as once she has more than £10k, she’ll be able to take it a bit at time if she wants to.
She may also pay less in charges as she could receive a rebate on her management charge from us. The more she has in her pot with us the bigger the rebate she’ll receive, helping to boost her savings even further.
Guidance and advice
Making decisions about your pension can be complicated. So you may need some help.
Find out more about your guidance and advice options and discover helpful resources on our guidance and advice for members page.
Still not sure?
Use our interactive decision tool to help nail down your options…
