Withdrawing a pension at 50 ????????

[IsThisPossible]

My DH worked for a company for 23 years and paid into their pension for 23 years.

He now works somwhere else and pays into a different pension.

He said that he was told then when he is 50 he can have his pension that he paid into for 23 years.

This sounds odd to me, is it true ??

Some (but not many) jobs have an early date on which you can draw a pension. Can't remember them all but eg athletes can draw a pension from a very young age(40 or so?).

The job was at a car manufacturers.

All he has is a letter from who the pension is with and all I can see is that it says you can transferr it to another pension scheme or that when you retire you can have a tax free cash lump some.

Nothing about getting it all at 50.

I think there has recently been legislation that will change the minimum age you can take a company pension from 50 to 55 by 2010.

I would give the people who administer the pension a call (well get dh to give them a call because they may only speak to him). If you are finding it all confusing, it might be worth speaking to a financial advisor with a special interest in pensions - it's one area that really helps to have good financial knowledge.

normally only 25% can be taken as a tax free lump sum at retirement age.

Foxinsocks, are you saying that at the moment you can withdraw the wole lot at 50 ??

He will have to ring them as we do need to know.

IsThisPossible - you could not withdraw the whole lot, as Piffle said, the max that can be taken as a tax free lump sum is 25% of the fund, this will obviously reduce the amount available to purchase an annuity (basically the pension income paid each year). At the moment you could still draw on the pension at 50 (is your dh 50?) if the scheme rules allow it. I am not a qualified Financial Adviser, however I do train Financial Advisers for my job. I would strongly suggest that your dh gives the scheme administrators a call and finds out what the particular scheme rules allow. Pension legislation has all changed this year anyway, so it may be worth seeing an Adviser to discuss what your dh's options are once he has the details of his previous scheme.
Hope this helps?

Brownie