What is the Retirement Age for Personal Pensions?

When you set up your personal pension then you would have chosen a retirement age for yourself which quite possibly would have been 60 or 65. However, that is not to say that you can’t take your personal pension benefits earlier than this. The minimum age for withdrawing benefits from a personal pension is 55 (it used to be 50 but this has now increased so you can’t take them any earlier than 55).

If you do wish to take your personal pension benefits early then you need to check with your pension provider that there are not any penalties for withdrawing the benefits early. Often there are not but it is definitely worth checking. Also if you are thinking about taking benefits early then it is worth looking into it a few years beforehand to check where your funds are invested and whether you should be switching investments to something more short term if you originally invested on a long term basis. Obviously you should consult with a financial adviser about this kind of thing. For example if all of your funds are invested in shares and there is a sudden drop in the market just before you want to retire then you may lose some money. It is possible to invest in safer funds a few years before so that this doesn’t happen to you.

If anyone tells you that you can take your pension before age 55 then you should definitely take advice on this from elsewhere as, if you do this, you may be subject to a big tax charge for illegally withdrawing your benefits early. It may be possible to take them in exceptional circumstances (for example extreme ill health) but in normal circumstances you can only take the funds after you reach age 55.