Low-payout Private Pensions: Worth keeping?

[Mr Tardy]

I've a low-payout UK private pension that I'm pondering cashing in.

It's giving sub-£200 per annum when I hit 65 (a decade-or-so hence), and cashing it in should give me around £6000 to put into more fruitful investments, like getting my UK State Pension topped up.

Has anyone any experiences of this? Any problems or pitfalls?

Cheers!

[imaginatorium]

Are you sure the numbers are right? On the face of it you would have to live to 95 to get the same number of pounds, of indefinite value. So obviously 6k now is worth vastly more than 200pa.

[kuma]

I've a low-payout UK private pension that I'm pondering cashing in.

It's giving sub-£200 per annum when I hit 65 (a decade-or-so hence), and cashing it in should give me around £6000 to put into more fruitful investments, like getting my UK State Pension topped up.

Has anyone any experiences of this? Any problems or pitfalls?

Cheers!

Re the encashment option, no experience for me.

I do have experience of transferring a small UK pension pot into a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) whilst Japan resident, as it offered much lower fees and much wider choices than the original plan. The SIPP was not pre-existing; I created it at the time of transfer. Non-residents are perfectly entitled to transfer existing pension pots according to government regulations, but not all providers will accept non-residents. A partial transfer should also be possible.

Not quite what was asked, but might be an option worth consideration.

[beanhead]

Are you sure the numbers are right? On the face of it you would have to live to 95 to get the same number of pounds, of indefinite value. So obviously 6k now is worth vastly more than 200pa.

Indeed. This seems to be a fairy simple calculation, unless we are missing some important information.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

I've a low-payout UK private pension that I'm pondering cashing in.

It's giving sub-£200 per annum when I hit 65 (a decade-or-so hence), and cashing it in should give me around £6000 to put into more fruitful investments, like getting my UK State Pension topped up.

Has anyone any experiences of this? Any problems or pitfalls?

Cheers!

Re the encashment option, no experience for me.

I do have experience of transferring a small UK pension pot into a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) whilst Japan resident, as it offered much lower fees and much wider choices than the original plan. The SIPP was not pre-existing; I created it at the time of transfer. Non-residents are perfectly entitled to transfer existing pension pots according to government regulations, but not all providers will accept non-residents. A partial transfer should also be possible.

Not quite what was asked, but might be an option worth consideration.

Do you still have this SIPP as a non-resident? If you do can you still contribute to it?

[kuma]

Do you still have this SIPP as a non-resident?

Yes.

If you do can you still contribute to it?

No.

Not possible in my circumstances with my provider.

https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/United_Kingd ... l_pensions

Some details on the wiki of what is and isn’t possible.

[imaginatorium]

Just another thought: I am getting two pensions from England, and inevitably this involves hassle. Periodically they write asking me to complete a "life certificate", basically checking I am still alive I suppose, requiring different sorts of "paper", where by and large their lists of people I can ask to do this make no real sense. My wife may one day be entitled to two widow's pensions, and I have to think about how she would possibly comply with their requirements, given that she does not currently have a photoID with her name in Roman letters. Etcetcetc, but the result is that I would regard having retirement income completely independent of any UK entities with enormous relief. If you have any chance of extracting any pension or similar scheme reasonably economically, I would always advocate doing it.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

Just another thought: I am getting two pensions from England, and inevitably this involves hassle. Periodically they write asking me to complete a "life certificate", basically checking I am still alive I suppose, requiring different sorts of "paper", where by and large their lists of people I can ask to do this make no real sense. My wife may one day be entitled to two widow's pensions, and I have to think about how she would possibly comply with their requirements, given that she does not currently have a photoID with her name in Roman letters. Etcetcetc, but the result is that I would regard having retirement income completely independent of any UK entities with enormous relief. If you have any chance of extracting any pension or similar scheme reasonably economically, I would always advocate doing it.

Is one of these the British state pension?

[imaginatorium]

Just another thought: I am getting two pensions from England, ...

Is one of these the British state pension?

Yes, one is the state pension.