r/PensionsUK

Advice from teachers who pay higher rate tax

I asked a question about pensions on r/UKpersonalfinance and was left with more questions than answers! Looking to see what others in a similar position have done.

I will be a higher rate tax payer for the first time in September. I’ve just had a decent pay rise up to 62k, so will pay some higher rate tax this year.

It seems like my options are:

1. Pay the higher tax and do nothing.
2. Open a private SIPP - this is what I was originally going to do. It seems like this is a more flexible option. I don’t think I will be able to be in education in my 60s.
3. Faster accrual through TPS. When I looked into this before, it didn’t feel like a great option. Happy to be proved wrong.
4. AVCs - I had not heard of this before.

So - what did you do/what would you do? Keen to hear other people’s opinions on this.

Thanks!

Would really appreciate help as I have very little idea on how best to go forward. One of my previous employers paid into Scottish Widows which currently has a balance of £12K. I would like to take10K as a lump sum.

Could this trigger anything bad for me? Would I have to pay tax? I have never touched any of the pots or cashed anything related to pension in the past. I could take a £10K loan as my credit rating is fine - But would like to avoid as I hate loans.

I haven't yet spoken to Scottish Widows so see what the process is for taking a lump sum.

Any help / suggestions would be very welcome.

Hi folks, struggling here and would appreciate the help sense checking my rationale. Base salary is 59k and have plenty of funds for day to day living and saving. Should I be looking to bring that down to 50k via salary sacrifice to save the 40% tax? I'm working this out as effectively a 15% employee contribution, 9k being 15% of 59k. Is this accurate?

I have recently inherited someone’s pension in the UK but for tax purposes I am a resident of Australia. The fund is worth more than £100,000 GBP. We are trying to work out the most tax efficient way to utilise this fund. Considering I will need to take it out of the fund in the UK and then transfer it to Australia, would that be declared as income? As far as I’m aware, there is no tax on inheritance in Australia - but an inherited pension fund might be different? And what would be the most tax efficient way to withdraw it? Just a lump sum? Or smaller withdrawals annually? I appreciate any help!!

I have restarted working in the NHS and I want to compensate for not saving into my pension when I was younger. I asked my employer they said they offer the additional pension contributions and NHS MPAVC pension schemes.

I just wanted to know about other people’s experiences working in the public sector.

Also, does anyone know if this particular AVC is salary exchange? It says it on the Standard Life website, but I keep reading conflicting information elsewhere.

I have over £500k in LifeSight funds (100% equity)which I want to move to a cheaper platform. Eventually ii but as an interim probably AJ Bell because I read transfer is easy. I had wanted to this quarterly but can only withdraw 1/year. This feels an overwhelming large sum to invest in one go. Other than property and a small db pension (and eventually state pension), I am 100% in equities. But I struggle to see the benefit of bonds ( lower returns but still volatile).

I am 2-3 years from retirement and can live comfortably off £50k so will never pay 50% tax. Drawdown initially £35k pa then £25k when SP kicks in. So I get global index trackers but what to balance with equities if I should reduce exposure? And should I move into income rather than accumulation funds? Do I have to do manually sell off funds to access income? And I do want to take 25% income free c 150k. I can put £40k straight into isas as near end of tax year, but rest of cash will incur income tax wherever it is lodged. I do plan to spend the tax free money (campervan, extension to house), but over 2 years, so can I stagger tax free withdrawal? Or move invested funds into ‘low risk’ risk money funds within SIPP?

So interested in everyone own personal approach on drawdown/ nearing drawdown and. Fund choices other than global index funds

Saw this article today and I'm blown away by the sheer shortsightedness from the woman mentioned in the article. She says many of her friends are doing the same as they'd rather pay for holidays and have more spare cash.

Opting out of any private pension has got to be the most dumb decision any young worker can make. You've got so much time for that pension to grow.

The dangerous myth that the government will just take your pension

I hear this one constantly from coworkers who refuse to opt into the workplace scheme because they think the state will just change the rules and steal the money when they retire

Hi all - I worked at University of London (1.5 years in the 1980s) and The City University (1.5 years also in the 1980s). I have tried to trace my pension contributions at both and they are unable to find my details.

I was in my 20s at the time and pension wasn't something I was worried about. I do recall staff retiring and going on about how good the pension was.

I am now 67 (still working) trying to trace my pensions. Managed to trace all but the two stints at the universities.

Anyone able to help - PLEASE.

Recently started a new job and I asked to enroll with the pension scheme. I was told that I have to wait 12 months, at which point I will be added to the scheme and 12 months EE contributions will be added.

Is this allowed? I understood by law you are added to the scheme after 6 months but you can opt in before this. TIA

I have approximately £5,000 in a NEST defined contribution pension from a six-month job I had about 4½ years ago. I haven't made any contributions to that pension since leaving the role.

Most of my career has been in universities, including my current position, so my main pension is with USS. That's my long-term retirement pension, and I have no intention of touching it before I retire.

I'm now 55 and would like to withdraw the £5,000 from the NEST pension and close the account. I understand that 25% should be tax-free and that the remaining 75% will be taxable. My plan is to invest the money in my Stocks & Shares ISA, where I think it has better growth potential.

My understanding is that, because the pot is under £10,000, withdrawing it under the small pots rules shouldn't trigger the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA). I've contacted NEST, and they're sending me written confirmation that the withdrawal would qualify under the small pots rules. I won't proceed until I'm confident it won't trigger the MPAA.

I'm mainly interested in hearing from anyone who's done something similar. Was the process straightforward, or did you run into any unexpected issues?

Hi all
I have recently been informed I have a db pension dating back to 1981.
Transferable Amount £29300 or £2900 per annum for life.
I am now 65 and stopped working last year due to ill health.
I receive universal credit so taking this pension on a yearly or monthly basis would mean losing uc £ for £ so would have no real benefit to me.
There is no lump sum option for this pension but it is transferable. I was hoping to use this to pay off my mortgage something else I would not have to worry about.
I have googled this but can’t get a simple solution.
Any help is much appreciated.

I started a pension very late in life, but have something of a plan now...😀. I plan to retire overseas, have about £100k equity in my house. If I sell up soon, what's the best way to feed this into my pension pot? My understanding is that I can contribute up to 100% of my annual salary per year and can backdate this for 3 years..but would I need to deduct from this the contributions I and my employer gave already in this period?

I've made some small contributions directly over the lsst couple of years as well but fairly nominal, less than £1k.

My salary is about £32k per year PAYE but I salary sacrifice everything above minimum wage into my pension pot.

Thanks

Sorry if this is not the right subreddit to be asking this but I’m at a loss.

I know for sure I have/had policies through Scottish Widows and Aviva in the past, and my current is through ReAssure. But i have no paperwork/emails to show who the other policies are from previous employment…. I stumbled across it today speaking to a colleague and went into a state of panic as I probably have 5+ policies just sat there collecting dust, if they haven’t been closed!

Is there any way to find out where all of my pension pots are so that I can try to combine them all into my current ReAssure one?

I’ve seen a site called PensionBee but I don’t know how successful it would be. I’ve always looked at pensionadviceuk.

I currently contribute to a workplace pension, The peoples Pension.

I am 37, with £20,000 in the pot, contributing £140 per month with my employer contributing £80 per month. My projected funds at retirement are approximately £155,000

I am now thinking about transferring everything into a Sipp on Trading 212, I'd carry on contributing the £140 per month I already contribute, if I were to put it all in say an S&P 500 ACC am I right in thinking that basing it on a 10% return id be looking at a Sipp worth approximately £500,000 at 65?

Hi, I'm hoping for some advice. Please be gentle as I've no idea what I'm doing and am fully aware how thick I sound.

I used to do agency / contractor work for circa 20 years. I worked for multiple companies so had a lot of different employers at the same time for a long time.

I've only ever agreed to one company pension scheme which is my current one which is a regular/normal job.

But I keep finding out by chance, I have lots of 'bitty' pensions - we are talking usually £5 here, £20 there etc that I never agreed to be in and was never told about. There's also one that has £900 in it that I specifically remember opting out of! Today I had one from a pension scheme for an agency I worked for EIGHT years ago.

None of these I agreed to. Virtually none of these schemes ever reached out to me on registering me. I'm wondering how many more I have??

Can anyone explain it to me like I'm 5 how I can go about finding out where I have more of this stashed away without my knowledge? I can't even begin to list the agencies and some went under donkeys ago.

Also can I merge all these into one big pot? If so, how? And how do I decide which to go with?

Thank you for any advice.

I left my employer approximately 4 years ago and the pot has since grown nicely. I am 37 years old.

I am considering switching into a SIPP as I'm not currently contributing towards a pension since being Self-Employed. I'd like to begin contributing again.

The things I am unsure of:

I believe I am still getting an employee discount on my pension as I worked for Standard Life (charges 1.153% - discount of 0.910% = 0.243% per year) - however, if I wanted to contribute towards this pension again I imagine any new contributions wouldn't receive this discount?

Would SIPPs have the same types of investments as what I am currently invested in? (See attached - 100% equities)

Is it worth doing?

Thanks!