When can you take your money?

To help you work out how much money you’ll have coming in as you come up to retirement, you need to know when you can get access to your different pension pots.

Employer pension

While nowadays it’s all about automatically enrolling in workplace pensions, some people still have other types of pension to enjoy when they retire. As such, ‘workplace pensions’ include any that you’ve built up with an employer throughout your career.

From these you can normally take an income or lump sum from your normal minimum pension age. However, most employer pensions have a ‘selected retirement age’, which is usually your State Pension age, or an age selected by you or your employer. Pension providers use this age to calculate your expected pension shown in your annual statement.

Taking money out of your pension pot before the selected retirement age will affect how much you receive later.

Personal pension

You can normally take an income or lump sum from your pension pot from your normal minimum pension age.

Like employer pensions, your personal pension will have a selected retirement age, which is used to calculate your expected pension shown in your annual statement. If you take money earlier than this age, this may affect how much you receive later.

However, a personal pension can provide a useful income if you decide to move to part-time work before stopping completely.

State Pension

The State Pension age is the age at which you can receive your pension from the state. This has now changed from 65 to 66 (depending on when you were born) for both men and women. In the future it will rise again to 67 and then 68.

Work out your State Pension age »

Did you know: You don’t have to take your pension at the ages set by your various pensions. You can defer taking your money until you need it.

Next: When and how do you want to retire