When can I access my pension?

At the moment, you must be aged 55 or over before you can access your pension. The UK Government is increasing this to 57 from 6th April 2028. 

You may be able to take your pension earlier if you’re suffering from ill-health or have a protected pension age (PPA).  

If you’ve told us you’re planning to take your pension at 55 or 56, but won’t reach that age before 6th April 2028, we’ll write to let you know how this change affects you.

If you have a PPA, you can still take money from your pension before age 57. A PPA only applies to certain pension plans or schemes, so it may not apply to all your personal pension plan savings. 

Who's affected by this change?

  • If you don’t have a PPA and were born after 6th April 1971, this change may affect you. For example, if you planned to access your pension savings before you turn 57. 
  • If you don’t have a PPA and you take money from your pension before 6th April 2028 and were born between 6th April 1971 and 6th April 1973, any money left in your plan on or after that date might not be available until you turn 57.  We’re waiting for guidance from HMRC and/or updated legislation to cover these situations and will update this page once we’re able to give more information.
  • If you don’t have a PPA and you’ve selected a pension age under 57 and were born on or after 6th April 1973, you won’t be able to access your pension savings until you are 57. We’ll automatically update your selected pension age to 57, this can also be called a selected retirement date. We’ll write to you before we make this change. 

If you’re considering making changes to your selected retirement date, or how your plan is invested, we recommend that you get financial advice. You’ll normally be charged for any advice given. If you don’t have a financial adviser, you can find one at www.unbiased.co.uk. 

Or, you could go to MoneyHelper for free and impartial help with money, backed by the government.