PENSION “FREEDOMS” – AND DANGERS!

As predicted 2015 was a Year of the Pension with many people taking the opportunity to access the money they had in their pensions.

The Government hastened to get out warnings about consequences of doing this unwisely. Not the least of these was that the person could run out of money in retirement! An important warning in this regard was issued by Department for Works and Pensions. They issued a factsheet confirming that if people “spend, transfer or give away any money taken from a pension pot” they could be considered to have “deliberately deprived themselves of that money” to secure or increase benefits. This could mean a person later on being ineligible for State benefits that he might otherwise have had. For further information on this, visit the Department for Works and Pensions website and search on “Pension flexibilities and DWP benefits.”