Why can’t I cash in £10,000 pension?

After spending 25 years in the pensions and life assurance industry, I ceased working in the field at the age of 50.

By then I had accumulated various pension plans with different life offices: some from company schemes, others from self-employment. My wife and I also moved to a different area because of a job promotion.

Later, after acquiring a degree, I taught in adult education for 10 years until I retired aged 65. Since I was by then out of date about pensions, I asked a financial adviser to deal with realising my pension policies. However, one policy was overlooked. JOHN DAVIS, WORCS

When you found out about it, just before your 75th birthday, pension legislation was changing.

Now, aged 77, the matter was still in limbo. You needed the money for family, for charitable donations and to assist Egypt: the Postal Concession 1932 to 1956.

Time and again when you tried to cash in the plan, Phoenix Life, which it was now with, thwarted you. This was partly because from the outset Phoenix had insisted that, as the policy contained a guaranteed annuity rate (which compared very well with standard annuity rates), you must first take financial advice.

Only when I became involved did it appreciate that the plan’s value put it well below the £30,000 threshold for needing an adviser’s opinion.

For the trouble and upset this had caused you Phoenix Life offered £300. Using a claim form it had received from you in 2015, and after some issues with paperwork were unravelled, you received its £10,313 value.

You believe you may be able to claim back some of the tax that has been deducted.

Phoenix has now paid 8pc late payment interest, which after tax is £995, and £50 for the extra inconvenience. The total received is £11,658. insurance provided that they are visitors. Usually this applies for up to six months.

“Sometimes their insurer may allow them to drive someone else’s car thirdparty only while in the UK.”

Each individual scenario should be carefully checked out, however.

In the end your friend hired a car that included insurance. An added benefit of doing this is that generally if the guest does have an accident, the host would not lose their excess and no-claims bonus. This would be the case if there were a mishap while the host’s vehicle was being driven by the guest.

Mr Crowder said that, over the years, AA Insurance had sought to develop a relationship with a third-party provider to enable it to offer just this type of cover. However, it had not found a partner willing to do this.