Should I top up my pension now?

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I am being made redundant at the end of this month.
I will collect my state pension in 2023 - and will need to survive on what freelance work I can get and savings I have until then.
My pension pot was 'just enough' and has of course just plummeted.
I do have cash savings - should I put as much as I can into my pension before April 5th to get the Gvt tax relief, or will it just immediately disappear down a Covid Black Hole?

Hmm that’s a complicated question due to the time involved. You could put it in and keep it as cash

"You could put it in and keep it as cash"

How do you mean Bugaboo? Is this something that pension funds do, keep it in cash rather than in investments or whatever they usually do?

I should phone them, shouldn't It?

Thank you for answering.

It does depend who runs your pension, but yes cash pots are often part of what PP offer

values go up and down.

Do you want to sell when the market's low?

Sorry to hear about the redundancy.

The first £30,000 of redundancy payments are free of tax. You should only consider putting your redundancy payment into pension to the extent it exceeds £30,000 otherwise there is no tax benefit and you just lock up £30,000 into pension unnecessarily.

If your redundancy is less than £30,000 and you are looking for a tax shelter, consider ISAs instead. Your allowance for this tax year is £20,000 and after 6 April 2020, you have another fresh ISA allowance to play with.

As for whether your cash will go down a Covid Black Hole if you invest in equities (Stocks and Share ISA), very possibly. Depends on when you need to draw on this cash. A two year time line does not enable you to ride out the market but if you are prepared to lock up your funds for longer, you might make quite a bit when equities recover, if they recover.

Baron Rothschild: the time to buy is when there is blood in the street. You are going to need nerves of steel for this. Otherwise, best to put it into safer investments than equity. Apart from cash, I am not sure what it is.

Consult an IFA, of course.

My redundancy payment is less than £30k, yes, so it won’t be taxed.

I think I am allowed to put a certain amount of money per year into my pension. I have not reached this amount yet. My thinking was if I put cash in to my pension it would immediately attract 20% contribution from government? Simply paying more into my pension to get the tax advantage?

You can put 100% of your salary or £40k whichever is lower.

Ignore the fact it’s redundancy and use the above to see if you can put more in.

Thank you.