This is a question that is asked regularly. While most people understand that they can't start to receive money from their pension plan before the age of 55 at the earliest, there are many who don't fully understand how they receive benefits once they retire.
How do I get a pension? This is not a question enough young people are asking. A lack of awareness is a major contributing factor to the fact that so many people are ill-equipped for their retirement. People are typically ignoring or failing to realise the importance of making sure they have a pension plan in place from a young age, and as such are set to struggle when they reach retirement age
The type of pension scheme you end up with will broadly depend on your situation and your goals for retirement. There are a number of different schemes available, and you can have more than on e at any one time.
This guide has a bit of detail about the most common types of pension, and how you can go about starting a scheme.
To many people pensions seem like a particularly complicated financial product. In reality though, pensions are far from complicated, and everyone should understand their pension and the type of scheme they are paying into.
It is thought that around 12 million people across the UK have made little or no provisions for their pension - and figures from Prudential have shown that in the region of 216,000 employees across the UK currently have no pension scheme at all.
Although awareness surrounding pension schemes has increased in line with the economic downturn, too many people are still ignoring the need for a pension scheme until they near retirement – and this could be particularly damaging to their financial health upon retirement.
Many people don't take the opportunity to arrange a pension plan. There are other things in life, particularly at a young age, which people would find more important than organising a pension. This is perfectly normal, but a major role of a financial advisor is to ensure the protection of a person's long term financial future, and starting a pension scheme is one way of doing this.
You may be surprised to hear that the answer to this is yes. It may not be very common yet, but it is now possible for children to have a pension. There are a few different options, but the most common is a Stakeholder Pension fund. A child's pension can be opened from as little as £20 and you can pay in up to a maximum of £2,808 per annum net of income tax in a single tax year. Like an adult's pension it attracts tax relief, boosting the total paid into the fund in a year to £3,600 based on a contribution of £2,808.
Around 268,000 employees in the UK don't have a pension. At the moment, having a pension is not compulsory; however this is subject to change and suggested schemes such as the Government’s Personal Account could mean that in the future we are required to hold a pension scheme. As an example, the Personal Account scheme would have an "opt out" option, but every employee in the UK will be enrolled into the scheme initially which will demand a payment of 4% of earnings.
If you've not enrolled in a personal, stakeholder or company pension plan, it's very likely that you will only receive the State Pension when you retire. The State Pension is provided by the Government to make sure that you have some form of income for your retirement. It is basically made up of the National Insurance contributions that you have made throughout your working life.
A SIPP is a Self-Invested Personal Pension. Contributions to a SIPP can be made in a variety of different forms. These range from a one off investment, a regular contribution, or a transfer in from an existing policy, such as occupational pension schemes, final salary schemes, section 32 buy-out policies, free standing additional voluntary contribution schemes, retirement annuity contracts, and personal pension schemes.