Forgotten pension during insolvency

[Thedub65]

Hi everyone

I'm new here and looking for some advise.

I'll try to keep it short and to the point.

I've been through insolvency and was discharged a couple of years ago.

I had a debt write down on buy to lets from 2007 and my family home which I couldn't keep up repayments on.

Personal insolvency saved my family home. I'm happily paying my mortgage for the next 15 years.

My wife was clearing out the attic recently and found a pension document from a policy I had during a failed company venture in the 90's.

We moved house in 2002 and I didn't tell them so that was the end of any correspondence.

Turns out there's 50k in it but no contributions since the late 90's.

It wasn't included in my PIA. I can access it at 55.

What's the right thing to do here?.

Call my pip and be honest with him?. What's the likely outcome here?.

If I cashed it in and paid the tax and paid the remainder as a lump sum off the mortgage, would this raise a red flag with the bank?. What's the likely outcome here?

Or should I just forget about it for another 5 years as I'm discharged 2/3 years ago and it's unlikely anyone will know I had access to it at 55?.

Thanks for any advice here.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

If I cashed it in and paid the tax and paid the remainder as a lump sum off the mortgage, would this raise a red flag with the bank?.

Highly unlikely. €50k is not a huge amount to come by via something like inheritance

and it's unlikely anyone will know I had access to it at 55?.

Again unlikely anyone will discover at this point if it didn’t come to light during the PIA.

What's the right thing to do here?.

I’m not sure what the rules are for a false declaration during PIA but I think you have a pretty reasonable claim that this was an honest oversight.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

If it was an honest oversight, then you should declare it now.

Otherwise, it is reasonable to assume it was hiding your assets.

Brendan

 

[lff12]

Hi everyone

I'm new here and looking for some advise.

I'll try to keep it short and to the point.

I've been through insolvency and was discharged a couple of years ago.

I had a debt write down on buy to lets from 2007 and my family home which I couldn't keep up repayments on.

Personal insolvency saved my family home. I'm happily paying my mortgage for the next 15 years.

My wife was clearing out the attic recently and found a pension document from a policy I had during a failed company venture in the 90's.

We moved house in 2002 and I didn't tell them so that was the end of any correspondence.

Turns out there's 50k in it but no contributions since the late 90's.

It wasn't included in my PIA. I can access it at 55.

What's the right thing to do here?.

Call my pip and be honest with him?. What's the likely outcome here?.

If I cashed it in and paid the tax and paid the remainder as a lump sum off the mortgage, would this raise a red flag with the bank?. What's the likely outcome here?

Or should I just forget about it for another 5 years as I'm discharged 2/3 years ago and it's unlikely anyone will know I had access to it at 55?.

Thanks for any advice here.

According to Citizens Info work based pensions are not considered to be relevant to any insolvency deal unless you stuffed it in the 3 years prior to applying for insolvency in order to conceal money from lenders. So you have nothing to worry about and should not feel under pressure to take your pension early in order to clear your debt.

I'm not sure what age you are but if there is more than 10 years to go I'd be inclined to leave it and continue to pay your repayments as agreed. You might check with a pension adviser (if you have one) to see how much tax you'd pay, roughly how well the pension has been doing in the last couple of years, and compare that to what you might save by clearing the outstanding debt off early. Doing the sums will show you one option is financially better than the other.

You can take it if you like but shouldn't feel under pressure to do so. My father was pressurised into taking his pension 5 years early in order to clear just the last 10k of his mortgage 20 years ago, before their was consumer friendly regulation of arrears, and it left him with a meagre pension of just 75 euro a week - he never really got over the impact & is still in debt aged 81. My siblings have to pay for central heating oil or else he wouldn't have the central heating on.