Raiding my pot to revamp kitchen was a big mistake

PAULA LEWIS ( left) did not start saving into a pension until she was 40, and now accepts that she will have to keep working into her 70s.

Paula, 59, has combined pension savings worth £20,000, after taking 20 pc out three years ago under the pension freedoms. The mother-of-one, who lives near Worthing, West Sussex, says: ‘ I do think I have been sleepwalking into retirement.’

The communications specialist took out the tax-free lump sum in 2017 to redecorate her kitchen before putting her house on the market.

Paula (left) says: ‘I wasn’t thinking that a minute amount was going to help me in my old age and I needed to take a really quick and easy decision. I didn’t really think beyond that.

‘I knew I was entitled to take it and decided to do so once I saw how much was in there.’ She has since used Pension Wise, the free government advice service, but says she was left feeling confused.

She adds: ‘I have to say this guy I spoke to really earned his stripes as we spoke for a long time.

‘It was complicated and convoluted and he still couldn’t give me advice — he just gave me options.

‘If I am talking to my bank manager about taking a loan, I will be told how much I need to pay back and by when — it is much more straightforward. People like to be led. Sometimes pensions are mired in all sorts of complicated stuff.’

Paula, who is now mortgage-free after downsizing, says: ‘I still look at what I have in my pensions and at what I am going to get from the State in retirement. It’s fairly depressing.’