It is vital to ensure all your pots are paying an income
I’m now on my SEVENTH pension
FREELANCE researcher Suzannah Kinsella is paying monthly sums into what is now her seventh pension collected over her working life – but one of her old pensions is likely lost.
She says: ‘I started saving for a pension when I was living in Canada in my 20s. I have no idea how I would claim for that pension in the future.’
The 46-year-old, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, has five pension plans she has kept track of, having worked at an advertising agency, a food company, as a civil servant and a researcher and for herself. She has recently started a pension with Nutmeg.
Consolidating the pots into her latest pension would make admin easier in the run-up to retirement – but in a demonstration of how complicated pensions can be, she can’t do this with at least two.
Suzannah says: ‘I’ve taken advice to leave the civil service pension alone as it is final salary and one of the others applies penalties if I transfer it in the next three to four years.’
In a bid to stay on top of where her retirement savings are, she keeps a spreadsheet of all her pensions.
But she adds: ‘There should be a straightforward way to understand what each pension pot might be worth annually.
‘This would impress upon people the difference between their income in work versus retirement and the importance of topping up – or tracking down – a pension.’