The normal minimum pension age (NMPA) is increasing from age 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028. Some people’s pensions protect them from the increase but the benefit can be lost if you transfer out.
Yet others could be caught out by a weird time-glitch.
The legislation as written will allow some to access their pension at age 55, but then lock them out again because they won’t be 57 when the pension age rises!
This piece of bureaucratic madness could affect over one million people according to former pensions minister, Steve Webb, who sounded the alarm in This Is Money.
It’s yet another pensions minefield and – if you’re not following the Department for Work and Pensions award-winning communications campaign – you might not know what’s going on. [Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, y’know – Ed]
In this post we’ll cover who’s liable to lose access to their pension, and how to tell if your scheme offers a Protected Pension Age (PPA) of 55 or 56.1
Now you see it, now you don’t
Up to 5 April 2028 most people can tap into their pension from age 55.
Overnight, from 6 April 2028 the minimum pension age rises to 57.
Critically, there’s no transitional arrangement in place.
So if you’re not 57 on 6 April 2028, you will generally not be able to access your pension. Even if you were doing so because you were over-55 before that date!
In the case of someone born on 5 April 1973, they will have precisely 24 hours to enjoy their pension before it closes for another two years.
If that’s you, I recommend using a pension provider famed for their speedy customer service.
You might think such a ludicrous situation would be cleared up. But currently this is the state-of play – despite warnings from both within and without government.
Anyone born after 6 April 1971 but before 6 April 1973 is stuck in this bizarro world loophole.
The obvious solution is to allow anyone who started accessing their pension before the magic date to carry on as they were.
But that isn’t happening.
The law as it stands simply snaps shut your pension pot again until you’re age 57.
What does the Government say?
The Treasury referenced the problem in a July 2021 paper:
The Government also acknowledges the importance of establishing a clear position on the transitional arrangements. For example, members who do not have a PPA and have reached age 55 but not age 57 by 6 April 2028 and for whom a transitional issue may arise.
The Government will provide further advice on the proposed transitional arrangements and provisions in due course.
No such advice has been published. The change in the NMPA was written into law by the Finance Act 2022.
Since then, silence.
What does HMRC say?
Essentially: “Nothing to do with us, guv.”
If you search around the issue, you’ll find this query on the HMRC Community Forums where someone asks if they’ll be stopped taking their pension.
Three HMRC respondents duck the question by either linking to information that doesn’t help or offering a bureaucratic dead-bat:
Sorry, we cannot comment on future events as legislation may change.
What do others say?
Some pension providers are flagging the problem.
As you’ll be 55 before 6 April 2028 you’ll be able to take your pension benefits at any time from your 55th birthday up to 6 April 2028.
It’s currently unclear whether you’ll have to stop taking pension payments after 6 April 2028 (such as regular pension drawdown payments) until you reach the age of 57.
While government-backed financial educator Money Helper cautions:
People born between 6 April 1971 and 5 April 1973 may be caught in a transitional phase, possibly accessing their pensions at 55, then losing access from 6 April 2028 until they reach age 57.
This is definitely a thing
I’m personally caught up in this. And I must admit I’d assumed some kindly government fixer would close the loophole.
It just seems nuts. But there’s a reason why political satire has such a rich tradition.
And now there’s less than four years to go. The planning window is perilously short if nobody does anything about this.
One option is to take enough cash out of your pension to cover the period when it’s padlocked again.
A 5 April 1973 baby will need to withdraw an extra two years of cash to get them through the tax years 2028-29 and 2029-30.
That’s likely to mean a big tax hit, unless you use your tax-free cash.
Check out this piece on the pension drawdown rules to understand how to use phased drawdown to take the tax-free cash you need without overwhelming your ISA allowance.
The article also covers the emergency tax issues associated with drawdown and the disadvantages of taking uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (UFPLS) payments.
Personally, I’m not keen on incinerating tax-free cash that can be used to grow your future tax-free space in ISAs, if left invested. Especially as it seems likely that taxes will rise in the future.
But everyone has their own priorities. Some may decide to take the tax hit at 20% but use tax-free cash to avoid tipping over the higher thresholds, for example.
Is your pension age protected?
Some pensions can be accessed at age 55 even after the 6 April 2028 NMPA rise.
This Protected Pension Age (PPA) benefit applies to:
- A pension scheme that gave its members the unqualified right to take benefits at age 55 under their scheme rules on 11 February 2021.
- You also had to be a member of the scheme before 4 November 2021, or in the midst of a transfer.
- An ‘unqualified right’ means that you do not need the consent of anyone else (for example, trustees or scheme administrators) to take your pension benefits.
It’s best to check the status of your pensions directly with the scheme administrators.
I didn’t think any of my pensions qualified. But then I discovered that Fidelity’s SIPP offers a PPA of 55, providing you held it before 4 November 2021.
Stick or twist
You can lose your PPA if you transfer your pension. A new provider doesn’t have to honour your protection, so check that they will if retiring at 55 sounds nice.
But there’s a twist:
- Money transferred from your protected scheme is ring-fenced once it hits your new pension.
- Only that money benefits from your PPA in the future.
- The rest of your pot (including ongoing tax relief, employer contributions and investment growth) will only be available from age 57.
But there’s… a twist within the twist!
The above rules apply if you arrange your transfer as an individual in a move known as – wait for it – an individual transfer.
But under a block transfer your past and future contributions qualify for the PPA even if the new scheme doesn’t offer any such protection.
(Ever get the impression that HMRC is run by the puzzle-loving fiend, The Celestial Toymaker?)
A block transfer involves two or more members of a pension scheme transferring to the same new scheme at the same time.
Alright, I feel like I’m addressing an ever dwindling proportion of the population with each passing sentence, so let’s finish this bit up.
Money transferred from a non-qualifying pension can gain protection if you shift it to a qualifying scheme that you joined before 4 November 2021. The People’s Pension makes this clear in their explanation of the rules. (Hat tips to Monevator readers WinterMute and PhilosoFIRE for pointing me in the right direction on this).
All the same, please ask your scheme’s administrator to confirm this in writing to you. Don’t rely on all pension schemes applying the rules the same way – the system is full of quirks and kinks.
Apparently a pension in drawdown can transfer without the loss of your PPA. But please double-check this too, as I only found one single source making that claim.
Minimum pension age rising to age 58 and beyond?
The original government plan was to tether the NMPA to the State Pension Age. The idea being that your private pensions could be ransacked no more than ten years before the State Pension.
However, this link wasn’t included in the Finance Act 2022. Perhaps it’ll be legislated for by a future Parliament. Perhaps it’s gone to the Happy Policy Unit in the Sky.
Either way, it’s not a thing for now.
What a state
Well, it’s great to see that the Government has learned the lessons of their last failure to properly inform people of looming pension changes. [Second sarcasm violation! You’re on a final warning – Ed]
I get that the time-limited pension issue only affects a thin slice of the population. But it could have quite a serious impact on those it does catch – especially as many people’s pension plans are touch-and-go anyway.
Moreover, I’m quite pessimistic about the chances of anyone bothering to solve the problem. I have a feeling it may not be the top priority of the incoming government – whoever that may be. [Fired! – Ed]
There’s one final takeaway here for anyone who’s made it this far down the page. [Hmm, still here? – Ed]
The government machine is continually screwing things up and often finds it easier to move the goalposts than to properly fix them.
So if you’re planning for the long-term, make allowances. Make your plans as generous as possible with as much wiggle room as a pair of Victorian football shorts.
Take it steady,
The Accumulator
- Only a few schemes explicitly offer a PPA of 56. So we’ll just refer to a PPA of age 55 for the rest of the article. [↩]
