Do you have questions about your pensions? Ask PensionBee’s finance and investment expert Becky O’Connor - £200 voucher to be won

[CeriMumsnet]

Pensions are invaluable for our future financial stability and wellbeing, however it can be hard to feel on top of them or know how best to manage them. To help you out, PensionBee has invited their expert to answer your questions around pensions and saving for the future.

• Everyone who shares a question on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw.
• One lucky Mumsnet user will win a £200 voucher
• Becky will be back online in a few weeks to answer a selection of your questions.

About the expert
Becky O’Connor joined PensionBee in January 2023 as Director of Public Affairs. She’s a Personal Finance and Investment Expert and award-winning Journalist with two decades of experience in journalism and communications. Prior to joining PensionBee, Becky was Head of Pensions at Interactive Investor, and previously acted as a spokesperson for Royal London, the mutual insurer. Becky’s also the Co-Founder of the ethical personal finance website, Good With Money; the Author of a book on sustainable investment, The ESG Investing Handbook, Chair of the Ethical Advisory Committee for Castlefield Investment Management and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Here’s what PensionBee has to say
‘We are a leading online pension provider with a mission to make pensions simple, so that everyone can look forward to a happy retirement. We’ve helped thousands of savers feel pension confident by enabling them to combine, contribute and withdraw from their pension, all in one place.’

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

These pensions feel
difficult to understand.
I dont even know if I have defined contribution or not. Do they have to be so difficult to understand?

I contracted out of my local government pension for about 5 years I was in it for a total of 7. I was very young and was advised to by an IFA who was a colleagues DH. I get statements from Aviva who now run my contracted out part. I then moved all my local Gov in to my higher pension. Could this have been miss selling on the contracted out part thanks. This would have been in around 1989/1990.

I'm an NHS worker (30 years of service) & was on the "old" 1995 scheme.

I was part-time for about 10 years - how does that impact on that pension scheme?

I would really like to retire at 60 - what are the implications under the new scheme?

What's your best advice for planning for an early retirement with a 'comfortable' pension ?

Can you increase then decrease your contributions to suit a variable income ? and if I can do this, can I get statements as to how in front of behind I am with contributions

I started a new job around 3 years ago - and my old pension is really just sitting there (with prudential) it is not really doing anything - It it possible to add this to my current pension pot in the private sector (there is 19,000 there)

Can you transfer part of your pension to your partner - to increase there pension pot

Large lump sum on retirement -with a smaller long term pension - or smaller lump sum and larger long term pension - what's your advice

All the advice on combining pensions always ends (or begins!) with ‘Get advice from an IFA on your individual circumstances’.

Obviously I understand it’s necessary from a regulatory point of view to avoid mis-selling but it makes it really hard to know if you should take advantage of a service like Pensionbee to combine pensions.

I’d really appreciate a good ‘rule of thumb’ guide, like ‘Is your pot under £X,000’? ‘Are the charges above .75%’ or whatever. And then it tells you if it’s likely you should combine your schemes or not. Does PensionBee offer something like that?

Also, I have a stakeholder pension, several workplace pensions I’m no longer contributing to and a current one. Should I have a SIPP? Is that different to my stakeholder? Urgh.

I would like to know how annuities are calculated, and why they seem so low.

For instance, one of my pensions has the following figures I am 56 btw, and no longer paying into this pension. It has a retirement age of 65.

• final value could be 12,400
• if I take it all as annuity I might get 312 per year (yay, I'm rich!!!)
• or lump sump of 3,110 and annuity of 234

My life expectancy is 87, so that would be 22 years of annuity (I assume average life expectancies are used for this). 12,400 over 22 years should give me 563 per year. Where does the rest go? Is it because the annuity will rise with inflation? But then so will the value of the investment?

How does a SIPP work in terms of tax relief - are they a better option than ISA ?

I have been told that pensions are essentially a ponzi scheme, where those currently working pay for those who are retired to get their state pension.
However as people are living longer, it appears the current method wont work. as too few people are working to support the many who are living many years after retirement. Hence the gov. increasing the pension age nearer to 70 over the coming decades.

Some speculate that the state pension may not exist in the next 20./30 years, due to the above. What are you views on this? Is this possible? And what can we do to mitigate the risk to us still working ( sub 50 years in age)?

How easy is it to change your mind if you withdraw and invest -any invest with another provider who can offer you a better deal - is your decision to invest a pension set in stone - what are my options - this is one of the biggest decisions I will ever make - financially

I have a Civil Service pension which I'm lucky enough to take at 60. I've also got a small pension pot of approx 20k which I want to use in the 7 years until my state pension starts. What's the most tax efficient way of doing this?

If I've worked part time in the past can I make voluntary contributions to my teacher pension above those that come out of my now full time wage?

And if I have an avc do they need to be kept separate or can that be transferred into the gov teacher pension?

If I currently pay a low rate of avc (5%) to in effect make up for going part time for many years, is it worth raising that much and to what amount if so?

I have pension pots in the UK and in the EU. I plan to retire in the UK. Who could advise me on my best option financially?

@CeriMumsnet

are you able to confirm when the guest will be back to reply to questions on this really important issue pls?

55 seems to be the golden year to retire early - if you plan correctly, do you provide a 'pension calculator' so I can forecast how much to contribute and how much I would receive at 55 onwards (I am 28 now with a private pension)

Do you think there WILL be a state pension for our children - and can they I / They start saving for one at a very early age ? - I fear that our children will have an unrealistic state pension age

I have around 12 years of a Teachers Pension and around 10 years of a people's pension in my current workplace. Do I keep these as two separate pension pots? And how does the teachers pension work when you have only accrued 12 years of service and are unlikely to go back?

Can you suggest a provider which has low charges and high returns please?

Can I take a pension break - and repay the missing time later on in my career - my net salary is just not enough with all of the recent hikes in expenses - It's something I am considering ?

I received my private pension statement this week. Over the last 12 months, I paid in £600 (£50 p/m). The govt topped up £150. Aviva (who the pension is with), have deducted £508.17 in "charges" 😢 So I would have been better off, surely, sticking the £50 p/m down the back of the sofa! Is it normal to pay such high annual charges on a relatively small pension? I also have a local government pension since 2018.

What happens to my pension while on maternity leave?